


While You Still Can

by sky_squido



Series: Time's Travels [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, But also, Gen, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Lots of Angst, Mentions of Suicide, Time Travel, Violence, and sad, because i sure won't, i mean it's really epic, it's pretty messy, it's sad, lots of battle and fighting, someone should give Time a break, there's like one panic attack, this is a sad fic, violence!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24483178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_squido/pseuds/sky_squido
Summary: A sequel to Turn Back Time.Needless to say, complications arise.
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Four & Twilight (Linked Universe), Legend & Sky (Linked Universe), Legend & Time (Linked Universe), Sky & Twilight (Linked Universe)
Series: Time's Travels [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768546
Comments: 121
Kudos: 306





	1. Where the Wind Blows

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back! This is part TWO of this series so be sure to check out part one first. This is going to be a lot longer and a lot heavier than the last installment, so make sure you're prepared for that. I have most of this fic written already, but will post each chapter whenever I feel like it because I am evil. The entire fic will be up by June 10th, though. Promise.

It had been a few weeks since the group found out about Time's... travels. Over those weeks, the Links had learned to fear the sight of the little blue instrument. Time had gotten into the habit of tucking it out of sight whenever possible because he knew how much him holding it scared the other heroes. It made it a little harder to grab in a pinch, but his priority was making sure his boys felt safe, so it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

They were in Hyrule's Hyrule—which Warriors insisted sounded  _ really _ dumb but Legend would flame anyone who dared insult Hyrule's nickname. Yeah, maybe it was a little dumb, but it was his name just as much as Link was and Legend wasn't about to stand for anyone making fun of it. They were in a forest in said Hyrule, and despite peace returning to much of the land after Hyrule's second adventure, the world would never be truly safe and monsters still filled the woods, especially in this area. The group was on their way to where Hyrule said the princesses could be found and Time was on edge. From what Hyrule had been saying, it sounded like there weren't any settlements around for days. If anything happened to them, there was nowhere to run, hide, or stock up on supplies. Time fingered the flap on the closed pouch where he began keeping his Ocarina—a new nervous tick he'd picked up since he couldn't hold the instrument itself anymore without causing a panic—when Twilight gently slapped his hand away. 

"It's gonna be fine, Old Man. We've had our fair share of fights since we found out about the Ocarina and you've only had to use it once. We've gotten a lot better! Besides, even before then, we always made it out safe in the end. It's going to be okay."

Time nodded reluctantly. Twilight had a point, though Time couldn't say he was right, exactly. Time had used the Ocarina more than once since then; he just hadn't mentioned it to his descendent. The group continued through the woods, Hyrule leading the way, when Wild, who had been walking right behind him, held up a hand.

The group froze, ears trained and eyes scanning. The forest was too quiet. Wherever they went, they could reliably hear birdsong—Four said that it was because Sky had "friendly bird energy"—but the forest was dead silent save a quiet stirring of leaves. Nobody moved for a few minutes, and once they deemed there was no risk of ambush, Warriors made the motion to fan out and search for enemy camps.

Twilight, once safely obscured by bushes, shifted into wolf form and was immediately overpowered by the scent of monsters. He had yet to be able to discern if monsters were infected by scent alone, but he had a strong feeling that that was what they were dealing with. The stench was unbearable, like drowning in the putrid essence of pure malice. He could make out... bokoblins, bulbins, lizalfos.... moblins? There were so many scents that they all seemed to blend into one, but he knew he had to warn the group. Shifting back into human form, he began making his way towards where he knew he could find Time.

"This whole place reeks of monsters. I don't think I've ever smelled so many. I don't doubt they're infected, too," Twilight whispered upon locating his ancestor. 

"Any other signs like tracks or camps?" Time asked, scanning the woods distrustfully. 

"No. The scent was so overpowering, I couldn't even get a direction on it." 

"Don't feel disappointed in yourself, Pup," Time began, "we're now aware of a danger we previously hadn—"

Time was cut off by a shout of alarm and the sound of swords clashing.The two began rushing towards the sound and by the time they reached the clearing where the sound came from, they could see Wind and Warriors fighting off what looked to be a dozen bokoblins and bulbins, yet the latter were without their customary steeds. The pair joined the fray as dozens—nearing hundreds—more monsters poured into the clearing, seemingly drawn to the scene by the sound of combat.

Amidst the fray, Time could see what looked to be a lizalfos, though where he would expect to see scales or texture, there was only an inky black void. The silhouette had bright red eyes that blazed with a sort of cruel intelligence that set Time's blood boiling. As he cut down a moblin with his Biggoron Sword, he saw The Shadow scan the group. Its beady eyes seemed to focus on something to Time's back left. It let out a cry in some hissing language that had the hylian baffled and sped off in that direction. Time, blocking a lizalfos' swing, desperately tried to recall who was in that direction. It hit him suddenly, and in his shock, the lizalfos got a strike in, though it bounced harmlessly off his armor.  _ That's where Wind was fighting. _

After The Shadow’s hiss, Time could feel the energy of the area shift as more monsters started flowing in the general direction of where Time remembered Wind being. Finishing off the lizalfos, he tried to weave his way through the battle—and it really had become a battle—in search of Wind. The clearing, though relatively large in size, was almost completely filled with monsters. He could catch glimpses of white, red, and a dark cloak, and concluded that the rest of the Links had arrived. Strong-arming his way through the battle, cutting down anything in his way, he managed to get eyes on Wind. The teenager was definitely getting ganged up on. A flood of bokoblins surrounded him, but they were getting thrown back as soon as they could get near. As Time fought his way to Wind, he saw—with no small amount of pride—that the young hero was holding his own quite impressively. As much as they liked to baby the kid, he was no amateur on the battlefield.

It was abundantly clear to Time, however, that Wind had been singled out as their weakest Link and targeted to try and break their morale. Luckily for the Links, Wind was a far more competent fighter than his age would suggest. He pushed back a wave of bokoblins with a spin attack and, in the moment he needed to regain his balance, managed to toss a bomb into the swarm. The Links were generally discouraged from using explosives during battle to avoid friendly fire, but evidently Wind decided that it was worth the risk. The explosion was already bound to attract the other Links, but Time let out a harsh whistle just in case. Wind was holding his own at the moment, but the swarm was only closing in on the teenager and he was only growing more tired. Eventually Time fought his way over to Wind's side and the younger nodded gratefully, a determined frown plastered on his face. Warriors eventually also worked his way over to the pair, and they managed to push back many of the bokoblins. They could tell these monsters were infected—if the streams of black blood running along their weapons didn’t already make it obvious—because though they took hit after hit, they just wouldn't go down. It was almost as if the black blood dulled their sense of pain.

Time heard a strange cry behind him and, as he turned around, watched as Wild slid in front of him, using his shield to parry away a fully grown bokoblin that had been  _ thrown _ at Time by a moblin. The two exchanged a nod and the rest of the Links filtered into the center. Eventually, a sort of Wind Safety Bubble™ had developed, each Link fighting in a loosely circular formation, trying to keep Wind in the center. The teenager was clearly grateful for this, but still lobbed bombs over the heads of his allies and into the swarm of enemies. "Hey, Old Man!" Legend called over the din of battle, "If everyone's behind each other, can we lift the ban on pyrotechnics?"

Time nodded, and the ensuing explosion was enough for the rest of the Links to infer that he had approved.

Legend wielded his fire rod mercilessly, Warriors making use of the spare that Legend had let him borrow. The sudden explosion in firepower was enough to cause a lull in the fighting. Time took the momentary respite to scan the battlefield and do a quick headcount. Wind was looking rather worse for wear, a few cuts on his arms and hands, but mostly just looking exhausted. It was clear that the monsters were still targeting him. Looking farther away, he saw a sight that made his blood run cold.

A tower. A full-blown archer's tower. The enemy had somehow constructed it in the short while they had been fighting. How did they have the organization and intelligence to build such a structure so quickly? It had Time baffled and quite frankly worried. What scared him the most, though, was the sight of a lone bulbin climbing up the ladder. They were setting up a  _ sniper _ . With that kind of height advantage, there was no way their loose circle would be enough to protect Wind and even if they could pick the snipers off with arrows, they still had to fend off the horde surrounding them.

Time realized, however, that the tower was made out of wood and they had no shortage of fire-wielders who could take care of it. He began to run towards Legend to alert the veteran about the tower but was interrupted by the sound of an explosion behind him.

As he turned, he watched in horror as Wind's Phantom Sword was blown away by the blast, embedding itself in the head of a moblin. Wind, however, was nowhere to be seen.

" _ WIND!! _ " Cried someone. Legend? Maybe it was Sky? It didn't matter. What did matter was the charred blue tunic and small leather boot, filled with blood, that Time could see at the edge of the cloud of smoke. 

"I'll check! You don't need to see this," Twilight said, rushing into the cloud of smoke. Time hated that. He hated it so, so much. Ever since the boys found out, they'd been trying to hide bodies from him because they knew he'd remember seeing them but they wouldn't. While they had a perfectly valid point and Time had seen enough dead bodies to last him 20 lifetimes, he still hated the way he was treated like some sort of  _ child _ when he was the oldest out of all of them. He didn't regret them finding out, of course, but he... he didn't know what he wanted, really. He was jarred from his musings by a broken "Tur– turn it back!" from inside the cloud of dust. " _ TURN IT BACK!! _ " came the cry, louder and unashamedly full of pain this time. The entire group minus Twilight and Wind converged around Time, creating a wall of swords and tunics to protect him while he played. The haunting notes rang out, and the battlefield went white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the title of this chapter.


	2. It Would Be a Mercy

"It's gonna be fine, Old Man." That was Twilight. Time had gotten back to before the battle. "We've had our fair share of fights since we found out about the Ocarina and you've only had to use it once. We've gotten a lot better! Besides—" It was at this moment that Twilight saw the Ocarina in Time's hand and the fear is his eye. Twilight's eyes went wide and Time motioned for him to be silent. Twilight's expression shifted to confusion, worry, and a bit of irritation, but Time simply jogged up to where Wild and Hyrule were—ruffling Wind's hair on the way over—and motioned for everyone to stop moving.

"There's gonna be a battle. Big. A whole hoard of them. Clearing. That way," he pointed. "They'll target Wind. Hyrule, stay with him and guard him." At this, Wind squirmed his way next to Time and silently grabbed his hand. Time squeezed it. Yes, he was very glad the boys had found out. He had no idea how he'd survived before. Before he was allowed to hold his boys after seeing them again. Before they asked him what he knew and what his plan was. Before they looked at him and smiled, telling him they’d see him later as they took their final breaths. "They'll be trying to build a tower. They'll get archers on it with bomb arrows. Legend, burn any wood they try to collect to a crisp." The veteran smiled devilishly at that. 

"Gladly." 

Time nodded. "Everyone else, stick close together. If we get into a circle formation with Wind in the center, he won't get hurt and we can use all the fire we want."

Wind pouted at this. He was about to complain, but looking up into Time's lonely eye, he silenced himself. He couldn't blame the man for trying to protect him. He had probably just watched him die. Wind shivered at the thought. He sure hoped it wasn't too gruesome. He wondered, though, if he had died heroically while protecting someone else. He hoped so, though he wouldn't dare to ask.

The group began heading towards the clearing, Legend spinning his fire rod through his right hand fingers and Hyrule sticking close to Wind. They stopped just at the edge of the woods. Time held up three fingers. Wild managed to spot a log and, grinning a smile so impish it would make Midna proud, caused it to light up a bright yellow, smacked it a few times with a club he had laying around, drew his bow and fire arrows, and climbed on. Time dropped to two fingers. Four and Warriors brandished their fire rods. Time dropped to one finger. Sky, Twilight, and Wind drew their swords. Red magic swirled at Hyrule's fingertips. The last finger fell. All hell broke loose.

With a sound like breaking glass, Wild soared through the air, raining fire over the enemies farther away. Pillars and walls and balls of fire were flung out every which way. The rest of the Links rushed into the fray, Hyrule paying extra close attention to anyone who might need patching up.

It was thirty-seven seconds and fifty-three milliseconds later that Time realized something he would have realized last time if he hadn't been so preoccupied by Wind: infected monsters didn't catch fire.

They suffered burn wounds, and were pushed back by flames, but they themselves didn’t seem to _catch_ fire. Sure, the shockwave of an explosion could rip apart a few limbs, but _fire_ was a different issue.

"Old Man, fire doesn't seem to be working!" Warriors cried out in a panic, hastily drawing his sword. 

"I thought you said to use fire!" Legend yelled, fear lacing his furious tone. 

"Fire _helped_ but granted I was a _little_ bit preoccupied! Try explosions instead!" He shouted, horrified that he'd spread misinformation to his allies. He was supposed to be _good_ at this!

In the chaos that ensued, their Wind Safety Bubble™ began to break apart. After a few minutes, the monsters began to surge towards Wind again. Odd. Last time it had taken longer. Perhaps putting Wind in the middle of their formation had clued The Shadow in on their plan? Luckily for them, Hyrule kept a barrier of protection magic active around Wind as best he could while still defending himself. The monsters didn't stand a chance against the near invincible fury of an almost-fourteen-year-old thrice-hero that had been brought back to life via time travel.

A shrill, whistling hiss broke Time out of his planning. Was The Shadow switching targets? It seemed so. The monsters that had previously been attacking Wind seemed to shift their focus to attacking Hyrule. Wind began trying to protect the traveler hero as best he could and draw the attention of the swarm to himself, but it was clear Hyrule was their goal. Why were these enemies so _smart_? Did they somehow know that they could drain Hyrule's magic? Time wasn't sure how much the kid had left in him, but if the sweat pouring down his face was anything to go by, not long. Should he use Nayru's Love? It would offer a brief respite, sure, but it would leave the rest of the Links fighting more enemies with less support. Not an option, then. He could try to get Hyrule out of the battle, but he doubted he could find somewhere safe and didn't like the thought of leaving the boy by himself. Time would have liked to be able to say that the safest place on the battlefield was next to him, but after what he'd just witnessed with Wind, he couldn't.

Time felt himself tiring. He'd just _fought_ this battle, dammit, and now he'd been shoved back into the fray again with nary a moment to catch his breath.

Time scanned the battlefield. The Links were scattered. Had the enemies taken extra care to keep them apart? Last time they'd started out disorganized and gotten into formation, catching the enemy by surprise. This time, The Shadow must have been able to see that they were trying to keep formation and instructed the hoard to try and break them apart. Time let out a slew of curses that would make Malon force him to sleep on the couch if she'd heard. Why did this Hylia forsaken _lizard_ have to be such a tactical expert?

It was during this realization that Time heard an explosion. Spinning around, he watched a pile of wood and what looked to be the beginnings of a watchtower go up in flames. He could have sworn he saw a blue cap and a devilish smirk amidst the chaos. Finally _something_ had gone according to plan. This relief was short lived, however, as the throaty cry of a horn sounded out across the battlefield.

 _Why can't these idiots show their whole hand the first time around!_ _Last time there hadn't been flipping_ reinforcements _!_ Though, Time supposed, last time the enemy hadn't really needed them. He supposed he should take this as a sign that they were doing better this round, but that was _not_ making him feel particularly good about the situation.

* * *

Warriors had been swept up in the tide of battle, unable to get to Wind and Hyrule due to the surging reinforcements. Eventually, he was forced to follow the flow of enemies to where Twilight and Sky were fighting back a hoard of lizalfos. The two were masterful swordsmen, twirling around each other in perfect synergy. Unfortunately for them, lizalfos were rather intelligent enemies and couldn't be cut down in droves like some of the weaker bokoblins. The lizalfos kept cocking their heads slightly, an intelligent gleam in their eyes preceding every calculated strike. It didn't take Warriors long to realize that they were trying to separate the two. Luckily, they didn't seem to be doing very well. They did, however, manage to—by sheer numbers alone—prevent Warriors from getting to them.

* * *

Twilight could feel the excitement fluttering through his blood. Yes, this was a battle and the last time around Wind had died, but they had Hyrule looking after him this time. Time knew what he was doing. Now Twilight could cut down these Hylia-forsaken monsters knowing Time had it all taken care of. He and Sky were able to stick together since the beginning, neither needing to wrestle with a hasty weapon change. The two were perfectly in sync. Every motion of one was sensed by the other and accounted for. Sky would stun an enemy and just when another would try to attack them and give its comrade time to recuperate, Twilight would step in, finishing off the first enemy with a flourish as Sky handled the newcomer. It was exhilarating.

One lizalfos, though, a reddish hue rather than the regular green, eventually worked its way to the front. Sky bashed it with his shield and it stumbled back rather far before falling backwards. Not willing to risk the red one getting back up again, Twilight dove onto it, driving his sword into its chest. In that moment, three more lizalfos cut between the two of them, effectively separating Twilight from Sky. Had the monster purposely fallen back that far? Had it been planned? Did the lizalfos know it was going to die in the process?

"Twilight!" Sky cried over the clashing of swords. "Twilight! Are you okay?" Twilight managed to pull himself to his feet, dodging a few swings with a dexterity reminiscent of his wolf form. 

"I'm okay!" He called back, trying to fight his way back to Sky. It was futile. Twilight didn’t care. He _needed_ to get back to Sky. Not only did he really enjoy fighting with him, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if something happened to Sky because Twilight wasn't watching his back.

* * *

Time scanned the field, spying Wind smashing waves of enemies with a comically large skull-shaped hammer as Hyrule struggled to keep a protective field around the two of them. He could see Warriors trying to fight his way over, but a fresh tide of enemies swept him away. Time _needed_ to get in there and help them. But what help would he be? He needed to find backup. Spotting the brightly colored tunic of Four amidst the chaos, he fought his way over to the multicolored hero and together the two worked their way towards the other pair. Having someone else watching his back, Time was able to move through the chaos far more effectively and reached the pair just as Hyrule collapsed to his knees, dropping his shield with it. Wind tried to move in front to guard him, but there were too many and _dammit_ Time was still too far away and all it took was one smash of a moblin's club to crush the exhausted hero.

* * *

An idea struck Twilight as he blocked a stab with his shield. Reaching into his pouch, he managed to procure one of his items that was simultaneously his favorite and least favorite. Twilight watched with grim satisfaction as all of the lizalfos stumbled back at the sight of him pulling a large spiked metal ball and chain out of seemingly nowhere. With an impish smirk, he began to swing the chain. Letting out the chain as the ball gained speed, he managed to clear a five foot radius around him, launching a few lizalfos over the heads of their allies. Something between a whistle and a hiss rang out across the battlefield and the lizalfos seemed to regroup, clearing out the area around Twilight. Frantically, he scanned the vicinity, spotting Sky resting on his knees and forearms, breathing heavily, covered in blood, and with the curved, cruel blade of a lizalfos’ sword sticking out of his stomach. 

He'd been stabbed from behind.

Twilight rushed over to the Chosen Hero and three whistles he recognized as Four's rang out across the battlefield. Someone else had fallen, then. Twilight knew he had to get to Time so he could rewind, but the sight of Sky, gritting his teeth in pain with tears streaming down his face, was impossible to ignore. He rushed to the wielder of the Master Sword and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. 

"Sky? Sky!! Answer me! Are you okay?"

"What does it _look like_ ?" Sky bit out, focusing on shaky breaths, barely holding himself up above the ground. Twilight was taken aback. Sky was _never_ sarcastic. Twilight didn't even think he knew what the word "sarcasm" _meant_. His breathing was rough and ragged, his diaphragm involuntarily spasming, making it sound like he was sobbing.

"Time's * _hic*_ rewinding, right?" 

"Yes, yes, he will, you're going to be alright. It's all going to be alright. I'm sure he's got the Ocarina right now."

"Hylia, it * _hic*_ it hurts _so_ _much,_ " Sky sobbed.

Twilight didn’t need Sky to tell him that, but it was rare for any of the heroes to admit to being in pain. Sky never hid his injuries, but he was also constantly trying to downplay how much pain they caused him. It was almost as if he felt the need to prove that he was just as strong as the other heroes. They could understand that kind of behavior from Wind, who was easy to underestimate, but it was more unclear why Sky felt the need to prove his worth.

"Twilight," he coughed out, sobbing openly. Tears streamed down his face, dripping into the blood-soaked earth as he said: "kill me. _Please_."

"NO! No, no, no, NO, no, Sky, you know I can't do that. How could you even ask something like that? You’re going to be fine. Just wait, I bet Time’s got the Ocarina right now." 

"Gut wounds are fatal, but they take * _hic*_ hours. They're some of the most * _hic*_ painful wounds there are. If I’m * _hic*_ coming back anyway, you can _spare me this hell_." 

"I'M NOT GOING TO KILL YOU, SKY!!" Twilight cried out.

"It would * _hic*_ be a mercy. Please, Twi. I can't * _hic*_ bear it. I'm only asking because I know you won't remember. Please, Twilight. I can’t * _hic_ * I can’t—" 

Twilight scanned the battlefield. All the commotion seemed centered around where he assumed Time and the others were. It broke everything inside of him to watch Sky suffer like this. He debated leaving a lit bomb and heading towards Time so he wouldn't have to watch, but no. Sky deserved better. Sky deserved to at least see the face of his brother as he died. Twilight placed his right hand over Sky’s and pressed his forehead into Sky’s sweaty locks.

With his free hand, Twilight drew his sword.

* * *

Wild, Four, Wind, Legend, and Warriors had all converged on where Time was standing over what was left of Hyrule. They managed to stem the tide of enemies as Time began to play the Song of Time for the second time that day. As he let the first notes slip out of the Ocarina, Time heard a whizzing behind him. He glanced backwards where a bomb arrow hurtled towards him but, a split second before it hit, a green and black blur rushed in front of him, deflecting the arrow with its shield. It exploded somewhere in the distance. As the world faded to white, Time could barely make out the form of Twilight, tears running down his cheeks and red blood running down his sword.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sorry for the title of this chapter.


	3. Expendable

"Thank you, Twilight."

"Mmm? What're you thanking me for, Sky?"

"For helping me with my wood carving! What you said about the neck was exactly right, it was a little too thick. Once I whittled it down, it looked much better."

"Oh, that? Don't worry about it."

Time opened his eye to see a campfire. Wild passed around dishes of stew while Twilight and Sky chatted idly about the wooden loftwing in Sky's hands. Warriors was teasing Legend about something and then Hyrule added a little comment and the veteran's face went bright red in betrayal, shock, and embarrassment. Four and Wind looked over the latter's Phantom Sword and discussed what to do about the empty hourglass in on the hilt. Beef stew. That was last night, then. Thank Hylia. He had approximately 12 hours to strategize. 

"Hey, guys? I think Time’s back from something," Wind called uncertainly, watching his elder curiously. The casual chatter went silent. All eyes turned to Time. 

"Hyrule, can you, uh..." though Time trailed off, Hyrule still understood his meaning. He put down his bowl of stew and scooted next to Time, snuggling under his arm and placing Time's hand over his heart. The group sat in a bit of an awkward silence, desperately wanting to know what had happened, but also wanting to give Time... well, time. "There's gonna be a rough battle tomorrow," he started without being prompted, "And we're going to need all the tactical mastery we can muster." 

Warriors' ears perked up.

* * *

The stars shone brightly in the sky when Twilight asked, "how long have you been awake?" 

Time was torn between trying to squirm out of it to plan more, being honest because he knew it was futile to argue with Twilight when he was being Protective™, and just going to sleep because he was exhausted. He decided on a compromise. "I gained an extra few hours to my day, but I can plan for a little longer." 

"Oh no you don't," Warriors cut in. "If we go through with this plan, we're going to need you in tip-top condition tomorrow and that was an extra few hours of  _ hard fighting _ . We've gotten all the information out of you that we need. I'm the strategist. Go to bed." Time opened his mouth to argue, but Hyrule interrupted him. "I can put my sleeping bag next to yours, if you want." Time nodded. He'd like that. "And, um... Wind, too, please." Wind silently obliged, dragging his stuff to the other side of Time and the eldest settled into an uneasy yet exhausted sleep, one arm around Wind and the other around Hyrule.

* * *

Midday came around again and the crew was more prepared than ever. How? By being less prepared than ever. The Shadow was unbelievably intelligent and clearly had a mastery of tactics. It had been able to predict every movement and analyze every formation. The key to victory would be unpredictability. They devised a series of signals—a modified version of the ones they had been using in the past—to change their battle plan on the fly. They'd have perfect teamwork, but total unpredictability. It was the best hope they had.

* * *

The group sprung into battle once again, blades and arrows flying every which way, breaking and remaking formations at Time's signals. He rotated who was in the most protected area to give everyone a break once in a while. He told Legend to destroy the tower. He even got Sky to keep an eye out for the bokoblin that would call for backup and he managed to snatch the horn out of its hand with his whip before it could get a full blast out. It wasn't perfect, though, with Hyrule's magic deteriorating quicker than Time had anticipated (did knowing he had died in this battle make him lose sleep last night and thus lower his magic capabilities? Time hoped not) and Wild hurrying to Legend in a panic halfway through to grab more weapons. It seemed to be going as well as could be expected. Until, that is, Time made eye contact with the beady red pinpricks of The Shadow.

It let out one of those whistle-hisses that Time was quickly learning to hate, and the tide of enemies began to center on Time. They'd singled him out as the leader.

Had he been expecting this? A bit. But now that it was happening, he realized—and he hated himself for even thinking it—he wasn't quite as expendable as the rest of the boys. He hated every single solitary word of that sentence—especially "expendable" because his boys were the most important thing in the world to him—but the question remained: if he were to die, who would turn back time? Who would bring _Time_ back if  _ he _ died? He quickly realized that this was very very very most definitely  _ not good _ . In fact, it was pretty Hylia-damned terrible.

He let out a sharp whistle to call for backup, and hastily raised his sword to block a bokoblin's determined swing. At that moment, with his arms extended over his head, a moblin swung its club at just the right angle to smash into his right arm, and he felt a deep, muffled cracking. His arm twisted at an unnatural angle and he could feel the soul-tearing grating of bone on jagged bone. He cried out in pain, and his arm fell limp by his side. He tried to move his fingers, but found he could not. Instead of "Hylia above, my arm's broken," the first thought to enter his head was " _ how am I going to play the Ocarina like this. _ "

Time was done for. Try as he might, his fingers would not move. He couldn't even wield his sword properly. The enemy was closing in around him and he was almost entirely defenseless. Time had never been so afraid for his life before. Sure, during his adventure he'd thought he was going to die plenty of times, and he supposed as far as Legend and Hyrule were concerned, he had, but surrounded by a horde of superpowered monsters who seemingly felt no pain with only one arm and no way out, knowing the rest of his allies were relying on him for help and if he died, those who he considered to be his sons would die and nobody would be there to save them struck a different kind of fear into his heart. He'd felt fear  _ of _ and he'd felt fear  _ for _ but never before had he felt so much of both. Time couldn't even use a free hand to whistle again because he simply _ didn't have one _ .

As if Hylia herself finally noticed his plight  _ for once in her worthless life _ and actually decided to  _ do something _ , Four managed to weave his way between the enemies, clutching his right arm close to his chest. It looked mangled and—heavens above, was he missing fingers? Time took back any appreciative feelings he had previously felt towards Hylia.

Four found himself met with a blood-soaked, panicked, effectively one-armed Time. 

"Four, I need you to find someone else who can play the Ocarina and bring them here. I'm down an arm and I think as long as I'm the one giving it air, it should still work. We shouldn't need to turn it back just yet, but in case we do, I'll need to be able to." Four nodded solemnly. 

_ Why’d we have to let that lizalfos get us?! We could have helped Time right here and now! _

_ Give it a rest, Blue. The only way to help Time now is to find someone else who can.  _

Four let out a shrill blast of three whistles to call the other heroes back in. Four knew it would take a while for the others to get there and  _ they didn’t have time for this.  _ There was no way he'd be able to both protect Time and check with all the other Links. It was too much for one person. 

_ We're not one person, though.  _

_ But we can't—  _

_ Dammit, Green, I think this is an emergency.  _

_ Besides, if he's seen eighty-seven deadly battles that we haven't, he probably already knows we can split.  _

_ Oh, Hylia, you're right.  _

_ Well let's hurry up then!  _

_ Isn’t it awfully funny how there’s not a single right arm between the five of us? _

_ Shut it, Vio. _

Four didn't need any further prompting and held his sword in both his hand, letting out a blinding flash of light. The enemies swarming around Time and Four were momentarily stunned by the glare and froze for long enough that Red and Vio could slip into the fray. Green and Blue stood, their backs to Time, wielding two quarters of the Four Sword with the same dangerous flash in their eyes. With a furious battle cry, they dove into action.

Though Green couldn't directly communicate with his other parts, he could feel the rushes of hope followed by crushing anxiety as each of them found a hero only to realize they had no idea how to play an ocarina. That is, until Vio stumbled upon Legend. 

"I play. Where is he." 

Vio, too exhausted to speak, could only point. Wild, who had been fighting alongside Legend, nodded.

Wild dove into the surge of enemies rushing towards Time. He jumped into the air, shoved his shield under his feet, drove it into the face of a moblin, backflipped into the air, and watched as the chaos slowed to a crawl. Letting out a barrage of shock arrows, he managed to paralyze the enemies in between Legend and Time. Legend rushed in towards Time and Wild dropped to the ground behind him. Any stray monster attempting to cut down Legend was met with the business end of Wild's blade (well, it was technically Legend's. All of Wild’s had broken).

As Legend neared Time, the paralysis wore off and a lizalfos rushed towards the veteran hero, a cruel, curved blade in its hand.

Wild’s world slowed to a crawl again, though this time it wasn't because he was shooting arrows. The lizalfos came at Legend from his right, blade pulled back and aiming for a stab in the ribs. 

Wild didn't need to think about it.

Legend was the only one who could save them now.

Wild sprang into action, hurtling forward and shoving Legend forward, unfortunately meaning he was now in the place that Legend had previously been standing.

The cold steel of a lizalfos' sword was buried in his stomach.

* * *

Legend had no time to scream or cry or shout. He knew better than to waste time with grief. The best way to help Wild would be to help Time play the Ocarina. At least that's what his head said. His heart couldn't help but break at the tortured scream escaping Wild's lips. Contrary to popular belief, many of the deaths on a battlefield are slow. Wounds festering, fallen soldiers breathing their last breaths under the trampling feat of their allies and enemies alike, and stomach acids slowly leaking out around a frigid, unfeeling blade. Wild wasn't dead and he wouldn't be for a while. Legend wasn't sure if that was a mercy or not. What Legend was sure of was that he needed to get to Time. If he noticed a second, green, Four and a third, blue, Four standing by Time while the other, inexplicably purple, Four was behind him, he didn't show it. He rushed to Time's side.

"I’m here. What're the notes?" 

Time froze. 

What  _ were _ the notes?

Time had always played by muscle memory, letting his fingers do the thinking. His fingers were currently  _ not _ in a proper condition to do the thinking.

"Hylia above, Time, are you SERIOUS? We don't need you going senile on us now, Old Man!"

* * *

Warriors and Twilight managed to fight their way over to the pair of bickering musicians.

Twilight's eyes fell upon the bleeding heap of Wild, a sword through his stomach.

Wild looked to be breathing, but barely. His Champion's Tunic sprouted a growing patch of vermillion that crept up towards his face, a face that was twisted in a tortured mask of pain. His eyebrows wavered and his eyes watered. A slow, steady, viscous glob of deep maroon slid down from the corner of his lip where his mouth was opened in a silent scream of agony, painting a trail of blood down his neck. Tear tracks ran from his eyes and down his neck, joining the steady flow of blood and expediting its journey towards the collar of his tunic. Twilight tried to block it out, but he couldn't tear the sight of Wild's pain-stricken, bleeding, crying face from his mind.  _ Focus on Time focus on Time focus on Time focus on Time he'll bring Wild back it's okay he'll bring your cub back to you _ . But Wild _wasn't_ gone. He was very real and very alive and very much in searing pain but Twilight didn't know what he could do about it. He had no healing abilities. All he could do was kill. And watching the tide of monsters rush closer, threatening to trample his beloved cub beneath their filthy, worthless feet, he wanted nothing more than to kill. To kill them all. To make them _pay_ for what they did to his cub.  With a battle cry to rival that of the shadow beasts, Twilight dove headfirst into combat like a man possessed. 

With Twilight painting a black streak of death across the battlefield, Warriors, Green, Blue, and Vio stood before the remaining enemies. At this point, Warriors was so caught up in the heat of the battle that he chalked the presence of three Fours up to him going delirious with exhaustion and appreciated their help regardless. After a few moments, the enraged screams of Twilight were cut off with a broken, wet gasp.

* * *

"A, D, and F. Repeated twice. A D F, A D F. The D's a half note; the others are quarter notes."

Legend nodded, exasperatedly, and tried to get his timing to match up with Time's. They couldn't manage to be quite in sync and the notes came out wrong. Time's sense of rhythm was not at all steady. Legend couldn't blame him, he did just watch Twilight and Wild die in front of him, but that didn't mean it wasn't frustrating. It felt like every time they tried, Time picked a different tempo. Eventually Legend got fed up with it and slapped Time's left hand away. 

"Aight, enough,” Legend snapped. “Just give it some air and I'll do the playing." The only response Time gave was to oblige, Legend awkwardly reaching around Time to either side, trying to account for the man's height. Though Time's breath hitched as Warriors, too, fell to the enemy's blades, the notes came out right and the world faded to white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sorry for the title of this chapter.


	4. We're F*cked

Time was used to not landing quite where he meant to. It happened. Sometimes he was so distressed or out of breath or exhausted or what have you that he couldn't think straight and missed his mark. Generally it was by a few seconds, sometimes minutes, though once it had been hours. Sometimes, in the heat of a battle, he didn't have time to think anything other than "back." So, watching three of his comrades fall before his eyes, one of whom was his direct descendent, in the third time he's run this battle, down one arm, and having someone else playing the Ocarina for him, were not the ideal conditions to be time traveling under.

He had aimed for two days ago. 

He got two hours ago.

The Ocarina fell to the ground, Legend's hands vanishing into a future that never happened. The battle raged around him. Time couldn’t breathe.  _ NO, no, no, no, nononononononono, no, NO, no, no NO, NO.  _ This wasn't happening. Not again. He just did this. He had been planning to run, go another way, go around, flee from the battle, anything, anything but this again. His breaths began to speed up and only his years of training and raw instinct snapped him out of his panic enough to block the sword a lizalfos was aiming at his face. It didn't look like The Shadow had started targeting him yet. Maybe he could stay below the radar this time. Trying to keep his breaths calm and his head attached to his shoulders, Time scanned the battlefield. He needed to find Legend.

No, better yet, he needed to find Hyrule. If the kid could get his fingers working enough to let him play the Ocarina, he could turn it back properly. How far back into the battle was he? Which signals had he already given? He glanced at the Ocarina out of the corner of his eye as he fought. His limp, broken arm cried out in protest at every motion. He could feel his bones and muscle sliding around and grating on each other under his skin. It was unbearable. No, not unbearable. He was the Hero of Time. He could bear anything—would bear anything—for his boys.

First, he needed to figure out how to pick up the Ocarina. His good hand was holding his sword and actively preventing him from getting killed. His bad hand was useless. Picking up the Ocarina meant dropping his guard. Whistling for help meant dropping his guard.

* * *

_ What the hell is Time playing at? Why hasn't he given us a signal? _ Warriors thought to himself, slicing through another wave of bokoblins. It was after stabbing a moblin that he heard the broken cry of Time: " _ Help! _ " 

"We're f*cked," muttered Warriors to himself before he dove into the swarm after Time.

* * *

"What the hell happened to you, Old Man? We're barely five minutes into the battle! Holy— your arm, are you alright?" 

"I need you to grab the Ocarina and get me Legend and Hyrule."

"I'd love to, but I can't exactly run out and get them without leaving you here to die!" Warriors protested, sending out a sharp whistle to call for backup.

* * *

Sky was the first to arrive. "What do you—oh golly, that's not good. What can I do to help?" 

"Legend and Hyrule. Get them here. Now." Sky nodded and vanished into the battle again. 

“Warriors, if I don’t make it, you need to get the Ocarina to Legend. He might be able to play it and turn back time. The notes are A, D, and F. Remember that. ADF, played twice. The D is held twice as long as the—” he ducked under the swing of a moblin’s spear “—A and the F. Remember that.”

“Time. You’re not going to die. I’d give my life before that happens. You know that.”

Time didn’t respond to that. The pair managed to hold their own until the arrival of Hyrule. 

"Hyrule! Thank goodness you're here. Heal Time's arm, I think it's broken." Hyrule nodded and began working on where the bones were shattered by the moblin's club. 

"Not my bones, ‘Rule," bit out Time. Hyrule stared at Time incredulously. "I need you to heal my fingers. My tendons and nerves. I need to be able to play." 

“Duck!” called Warriors, and the pair did, dropping to the ground as Warriors did a spin attack, pushing back the encroaching circle. Wild managed to fight himself over to the trio and wordlessly began defending as well, a tense, worried expression on his face. 

Hyrule nodded, concerned but determined. "I'll try my best, but I'll have to heal the bone at least a bit to get your fingers working. This is going to take a  _ while. _ " Time supposed he'd have to be okay with that and nodded. Hyrule got to work. They were interrupted by an explosion shaking the ground.

Time's head snapped up in shock. The watchtower. They’d built it already. What in Hyrule was Legend doing? He was supposed to be taking care of that! Suddenly, Time remembered. He never gave the signal. The only instruction Legend had would be Sky telling him to come to Time. Who else had fire? Warriors and Wild, but they were guarding Time and Hyrule. Four had a fire rod, but how to contact Four? He couldn't send anyone else into the battle because he needed everyone defending him and Hyrule. He'd have to tell Warriors to send out the signal for Legend to take care of the watchtower and hope that Legend ignored it and came over while someone else realized and took care of it themself. He hated it, but it was the only option. Just as he gave Warriors the order and the latter let out a shrill whistle, a horn sounded out in the distance.

_ Where was Sky? _ Time frantically wondered, trying to figure out how his plan could have gone so terribly wrong so unbearably fast.  _ Sky was looking for Legend _ , he remembered, so he couldn't whip the horn out of the bulbin's hand. The second horde of monsters had arrived.

* * *

Sky frantically barreled his way through the battlefield. Where was Legend? Legend was supposed to take care of the guard tower, but if Time needed him, then who was going to burn it down? Sky had no way of setting fire to anything. He resolved that the first Link he could find that could set fire to something, he'd send to the tower. For now, he needed to find Legend. An explosion tore Sky from his thoughts. He stared up in horror at the watchtower, now fully constructed and manned by two bulbins, with more on the way. Sky rushed through the horde, scanning for any sign of the red-clad hero. He found a sign of Legend alright, but it really wasn't what he had been hoping for.

Legend lay on the ground, his already red tunic darkened by blood. The entire left side of his face had burns large enough to match Wild's. His left arm was nowhere to be seen, only a bloody smear on the ground. Sky rushed over to him. "Legend! Legend! Answer me!"

Legend let out a moan, his closed eyes screwing up in pain. Sky tried to fend off the monsters around them while avoiding stepping on Legend's prone body.

"Legend! Stay with me! Time needs you!"

Legend cracked an eye open, giving him a pained expression that asked  _ exactly how much help am I going to be? _

Sky frantically fended off the enemies closing in on him. Explosions from bomb arrows rained around him in a cascade of destruction. He didn't know if Time would be able to play. He didn't know if Hyrule would be able to heal his hands enough. Legend was in no condition to do anything. Not only was he missing an arm, part of his leg, and what looked to be half of the blood in his body, Legend looked like he was about to die. 

_ Not Legend! _ Sky thought frantically. Time wouldn’t have even needed to play the Ocarina if nobody had died and now Legend was  _ dying _ because Sky didn’t get there fast enough. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t think straight over the worry, the combat, and the hail of bomb arrows. Should he call Hyrule over? But Hyrule was healing Time’s arm. Was Legend’s life more important than Time’s arm? Time needed his arm to turn back time, but he wouldn’t even need to be able to if nobody died. Sky looked around frantically, weighing his options, when he was interrupted by a wet cough and a weak plea. 

"Is there anyone else around?" Legend muttered out. It was a miracle Sky could hear him at all. 

"Just you, me, and a whole lotta baddies!" replied Sky, bracing himself as another bomb arrow exploded a few yards to his right. 

"Alright," Legend said, his face contorting into a grimace of pain and determination. "Run." 

"LEGEND! Please, no, you can't die. Don't die! Legend!" Sky shouted, voice full of panic as he continued fighting for his life. 

The veteran hero’s remaining hand crept up to his neck where he kept three pendants strung on a necklace. 

"Haven’t you heard?" Legend asked, a devilish smirk crawling onto his face, "Legends never die. Now RUN!" Sky ran.

Legend summoned the last of the energy he could muster. Every last ounce of magic that he could feel, he drew in to his remaining hand.

"Go on and shoot me with a bomb arrow, huh? That sounds like fun, eh? Shoot the f*cking  _ Hero _ of  _ Legend _ with a Hylia-forsaken  _ bomb arrow _ , will you? Well,  _ THIS IS WHAT YOU GET! _ " Bracing himself, Legend did something he'd always wanted to try, though he always had a sinking feeling it would kill him if he did: He activated all three of his pendants at once.

* * *

As Sky ran for dear life, the ground trembled and bolts of lighting arced around Legend's small, red form. The streamers of light crackled and connected and swirled and met in the center where an explosion fifty times that of any bomb arrow erupted.

Sky rushed back to Time, blinking tears out of his eyes, the number of bomb arrows that crashed around him dwindling as he put more distance between himself and the tower, and eventually found himself in front of a scene he could have gone his whole life without seeing. Wild spun around, frantically shooting ice arrows into the swarm. Hyrule bent over Time, worriedly healing his hand, though, by the expression on Time's face, he wasn't doing it very cautiously or quickly. Granted, Sky could guess that Time had ordered Hyrule to disregard how much pain his healing might cause and focus on getting his fingers working. Front and center, though, a huge moblin stood fully encased in a sheet of ice. The ice covered its entire body, right down to the tip of its sword and spread from where that sword met Warriors' face to down over Warriors' entire body. 

Wild had frozen the two  _ milliseconds _ before disaster.

Sky rushed over to Warriors and used the Master Sword to try and chip the ice between the captain's shocked and horrified face and the Moblin's sword. He managed to separate the two, and pushed Warriors out of the way with all his might. Though he slid a little ways along the ground, Warriors himself remained unmoving, though he twitched slightly, crystals of ice beginning to chip off his body. The moblin, too, began to stir. It was quickly zapped by a bolt of electricity that arced through the ice and fried the moblin to its core. Wild landed on the opposite side of Time from where Sky was standing. He snatched the moblin's weapon and began fighting. Sky tried to help and buy Hyrule more time when he heard a sound like shattering glass behind him.

He spun around and watched as all the ice that had been covering Warriors exploded in a sparkling fountain of diamonds as another moblin's spear slashed right through Warriors' middle. He fell to the ground, gasping. 

_ "WARRIORS!" _ shouted Hyrule, reaching out towards his brother.

“I told you I’d go down protecting you, Old Man.”

An explosion of fire shot out from the fire rod in Warriors’ outstretched right hand, causing the wave of enemies to stagger backwards. As they regrouped, another blast fired out. And another. Even lying prone on the ground, bleeding out and in extreme pain, Warriors continued to fight.

Hyrule couldn’t bear it anymore. He went to move his outstretched hand to Warriors’ wound, but stopped himself. He needed to heal Time. Only Time could bring Warriors back. But Warriors wasn’t dead, only dying. Maybe he could just stabilize him. And do what? Draw out his pain? Was it more merciful to  _ not _ heal Warriors and let him die  _ faster _ ? Hyrule didn’t know. He didn’t know. He just wanted to  _ heal, _ he just wanted to  _ help, _ why did he have to choose? Well, Hyrule supposed, he didn’t have to choose. Hyrule wouldn’t,  _ couldn’t _ , leave a patient in pain, no matter the cost. He had  _ two _ hands, after all; maybe he could—

* * *

Warriors knew the look in Hyrule’s eyes. It was the look he always had when one of them tried to prevent him from healing someone so he could save his magic. It was the look that said that nothing short of death would stop him from healing his patient.

* * *

The sound of a dagger being drawn sliced through the din of the battle like a clarion in the night. Before Hyrule realized what was happening, Warriors had driven the dagger through his ribs. 

“Don’t you… dare.”

Fear and confusion flashed through Hyrule’s hazel eyes. Did Warriors just… because of… Hyrule’s vision went blurry with tears. Why did—was it—should he—

Time put his free arm on Hyrule’s shoulder and looked at him sympathetically. He didn’t speak a word. Hyrule let out a breath. He put his hands back on Time’s wrist. For the first time in Hyrule's life, he ignored a patient. He heard Warriors' dying gasps as he healed another man's broken arm.

* * *

Wild didn't have a weapon. All of his had broken in the chaos and he was all out of arrows. One would think that a battlefield would be a great place to find weapons, but every time he tried to grab one, another enemy appeared and tried to chop his arm off. One very nearly did, and there was a steady stream of blood running down his left biceps. Once the club he had grabbed from the previously frozen moblin broke, he was out.

Well, Wild did have one weapon left. A weapon that brought memories of some epic stories he'd love to tell if only he survived this battle. His trusty dusty pot lid.

Using this pot lid, Wild managed to leap into the air, throw it beneath his feet, drive it into the face of one of the bokoblins, bounce off it, and fly into the air. One of the bulbins thought him easy prey and fired a bomb arrow at him. Wild chucked the pot lid like a frisbee. The lid flew through the air and struck the bomb arrow, exploding in midair. The shrapnel from the metal rim around the pot lid shot out like missiles and took out two of the bulbins on the tower, earning the battlefield a momentary lull in the shower of bomb arrows. 

From his vantage point, Wild saw an eruption of lightning shake the earth to its core. Was that friend or foe? If it was a foe, he’d need to warn the Time Defense Squad, but what if it were an ally? Which of his allies even had such unbelievable power? He wouldn’t be surprised if it were Legend, but Wild didn’t think the veteran hero would be able to have such an awesome ability and keep quiet about it for long. If that was Legend, Wild made a mental note to ask him to teach him later because  _ that was a very big explosion. Yes, very big indeed. _ Before he could think any longer on the matter, his momentary sojourn in the air came to a close and the earth’s gravity began to reclaim him. He fell towards the writhing mass of monsters below him. No weapons, no ammo, no way out. Wild had died before, though he didn’t really remember it all. Was there anything he could do? He could try and work his way back to the Time Defense Squad and see if anyone could lend him a weapon. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was all he had.

Landing on the shoulders of a moblin, he attempted to jump over the heads of the other enemies to get to Time, but the moblin haphazardly stabbed upwards and caught the back of Wild’s leg. Unable to get the lift he needed, Wild fell forward, crashing onto the ground. 

Lost in a sea of monsters and without a weapon, Wild attempted to push his way back towards Time, but a sharp crack on the back of his head from a bokoblin’s club was the last thing he remembered.

* * *

Four, Wind, and Twilight had all been fighting together when they heard the shrill whistle of Time's  _ take out the watchtower _ signal. After continuing to fight together for some time, trying to thin the crowd as much as possible, they realized that Legend was not doing his job. An echoing horn told them Sky had failed as well. Four felt an outburst of anger in the back of his mind. 

_ What are those idiots DOING?  _

_ Oh no, do you think they're dead?  _

_ We can't be sure either way.  _

_ We need to take care of that watchtower.  _

_ But how?  _

_ Well, we have the fire rod. All we have to do is get over there.  _

_ Let’s do it. _

"I'm taking out the watchtower," Four called to Wind and Twilight.

Wind nodded, but Twilight protested. "Wait a minute," he started, decapitating a bokoblin, "if Legend couldn't handle it, there might have been complications. I'm coming too." 

Four nodded.

"What about me?" asked Wind. 

"Get back to Time. Something's wrong." 

"But if Legend couldn't do it alone, are you sure I shouldn't come too?" 

Four smirked. "He's good, but he's not worth the three of us. Get to Time. We'll be fine." 

Wind nodded. He began working his way through the battle, but it was a harsh fight. Swords nicked at his face and arms from every direction, but he pushed onwards. Being so short, every enemy he slew rained an inky cascade of blood over him. About halfway to where he estimated Time was, the ground beneath his feet shook like mad and ribbons of lighting shot through the sky. An explosion like one of his ship’s cannons rattled the earth. Wind paused, looking back behind him before continuing towards Time, all the while echoing the last words Four had said to him: "they'll be fine, they'll be fine, they'll be fine."

* * *

Four and Twilight began rushing towards the tower, but stopped abruptly as a bomb arrow blasted the ground in front of them. They stared up. Five bulbins were manning the watchtower. Twilight pulled out his bow and tried to take them out first, but Four had to shove him out of the way to avoid another blast before he could loose his arrow. The two dove behind a pile of excess wood for shelter. 

"What are we supposed to do? We can't get anywhere near that thing without them blowing us up! And I can't get out of cover enough to fire back!"

_ We need to find a way close to that thing.  _

_ Brilliant deduction, genius, but how? _

_ How do we stop them from firing at us?  _

_ They need to see us to hit us.  _

_ We could shrink.  _

_ And get crushed under the feet of these monsters? No thanks.  _

_ Hey, guys? I got a stupid idea.  _

_ Oh no.  _

_ Oh yes. _

"Twilight. Do you have a slingshot?" 

"Yes, actually, I do. What are you thinking?" 

"Hold out your hand and I'll give you some  _ special ammo _ ," the smallest hero said with a wink.

Twilight reluctantly extended his left hand, but froze as a massive explosion rent the battlefield and lightning shot into the sky. The two looked at each other. Wasn’t that the direction Wind had gone in? Scanning the view before him, Twilight saw an explosion somewhere near the tower cause two of the bulbins to plummet to their deaths. Squinting further back, Twilight thought he could see the silhouette of Wild vanish into the fray. So his cub was okay, then. 

Their sense of urgency redoubled, Twilight held out his hand. Four vaulted into his palm, shrinking into the size of a minish. 

Twilight couldn't help it; he burst out laughing, though it was probably more hysteria than actual humor.

"You’re insane. Are you sure this isn't going to kill you?" 

"Nope." 

Twilight grimaced at that. "I suppose we don't have a choice."

Gently loading Four into his slingshot, he pointed it towards the tower. 

"Ready?" 

"HELL YEAH!" Twilight couldn't help but laugh as he launched tiny minish Four at the watchtower. The little hero soared through the air and deftly landed at the base of one of its supports. Returning to his normal size, Four grabbed his fire rod. He was interrupted, however, by the arrival of something he saw once in Wild's hyrule. What had Wild said it was? Ah, yes. A lynel.

Four could barely shrink in time as the lynel's sword passed just over his head like some sort of demented game of polo. 

This complicated things.

* * *

Twilight could only watch in horror as the figure that appeared below the watchtower was overtaken by a lynel. Once the monster passed, Four was nowhere to be seen. Shifting into a wolf, he rushed through the fray, trying to spot the little hero. Only then did it dawn on Twilight that he could have had Four ride on his back on his way to the tower, considering that for whatever reason, nothing was attacking him while he was in his wolf form. Rushing to the base of the tower, he sniffed out a panicked minish Four who he let climb onto his back. Unable to see where the lynel went, Twilight was forced to shift into a human to see over the heads of the enemies. With Four now perched on his shoulder, the two watched as the lynel began barrelling through the battlefield, straight for where Time was.

"We have to stop it before it gets to Time but it's moving too fast!" 

"Twi, launch me again." 

Pulling out his slingshot once more, Twilight obliged with another grimace, shooting Four straight after the lynel.

Four soared through the air again, this time landing on the lynel's mane. Growing larger, he attempted to mount the lynel like he had seen Wild do once. Unfortunately, Four was far lighter than Wild and was tossed around considerably more as the lynel bucked and reared. So, considering he was far enough from everyone else that he figured they couldn't see him and this was _kind_ _of_ an emergency, Four split. Green went for the head, trying to cover its eyes and blind it. Vio tried to keep a solid grip on both the mane and Blue as Blue drove his sword into the lynel's side repeatedly. Red could only hold on against the bucking of the thoroughly confused lynel. That is, until it stopped bucking and began what appeared to be some sort of charging process. Vio realized what was happening a moment too late.

"Green, get out of there!" Vio shouted at the same time that fire leapt from the lynel's mouth, engulfing Green in a spiral of flame and burning him to a crisp. Only ashes remained. In their shock and horror, the other three were thrown off by the lynel's resumed bucking.

They each hit the ground with a thud, scattered, and the trio tore their way through the battlefield, fear, fury, and anxiety rushing through their veins. No comforting spark of determination could spur them in pursuit of the lynel. Instead, the three found each other, diving into the arms of their other selves. They shared a life. They knew what was to come. 

“Blue, Vio, I love you guys.”

“I love you, too, Red. And you too, Vio.”

“You realize that none of us actually need to say it, but—” Vio choked on a sob “—to Hell with it. I love you all, too.” 

Embracing each other, the three wept as they slowly turned to ash, forming a grey outline where their shadow had once been.

* * *

Twilight could only make out some of what went on in the chaos. He saw Four return to his normal size, he saw the lynel bucking, and he saw the explosion of fire that followed. That was.... not promising. Shifting back into a wolf, Twilight rushed through the battle, trying to catch up to the lynel. Four had slown it considerably, but it was still charging straight for Time.

* * *

"Can you move your fingers yet?" Hyrule asked, taking a quick moment to breathe. Sweat was pouring down his face and he looked pale as a ghost. Never had he healed such severe nerve and muscle damage—Time had not been gentle with his arm after it had broken—in such a short period of time. Time flexed his fingers experimentally. They were stiff and slow, but they all moved. He frantically picked up the Ocarina from where it lay on the ground next to Warriors' corpse and brought it to his lips.

His hand was shaking so badly under the minuscule weight of the instrument that it fell to the ground before he even got a note out. He turned to Hyrule frantically. 

"Just a little more." Hyrule nodded and silently continued his work. His hands were raw from the amount of energy passing through them and droplets of blood began to collect on his fingertips. He tasted copper.

* * *

Wind bursted towards them, black blood smeared over his coat and face, and his eyes widened in horror at the sight before him. Warriors dead, Time broken, Hyrule exhausted, shattered pieces of what looked like Wild's weapons littering the ground, and only Sky left, trying his best to fend off the hoard. Sky was exhausted, blood streaming down his arms and face and staining his treasured sailcloth a deep crimson. A gash was torn out of his chainmail, bloodsoaked links hanging loosely from the garment. He wobbled as if on his last legs, but a fierce fire burned in his gaze as if the only thing keeping him standing was pure determination alone. Wind froze for a moment, horrified by the bleak outlook of the battle. How could it have gone so  _ wrong _ ? Hadn’t Time just seen this battle? Didn’t he know the enemy’s every move? How had they lost so much so quickly? Time couldn’t even play the Ocarina in his state. Was there any hope at all? 

In Wind’s moment of paralyzing horror, a lizalfos came from behind, a cruel, curved blade brandished in its hand, searching for a victim to claim. Sky, seeing Wind’s condition and assessing his own, dove towards the reptilian monster, thrusting his blade into the lizalfos’ gut as it drove its weapon through the gash in Sky’s chainmail in turn. The lizalfos collapsed and the hero fell to the ground next to Warriors’ corpse, clutching his stomach and shivering with pain.

“ _ SKY! _ ” Wind shouted, coming to his senses enough to block a stray swipe of a spear, “What the  _ f*ck! _ How could you  _ do  _ that?” He tried his hardest to blink away the oncoming tears. He had a job to do and he wasn’t about to break down in front of Time and Hyrule when they needed him most.

Wind stood, his sword firmly grasped in his young hands—hands too young for this hellscape—facing down anything came his way, ready to defend his brother and pseudo-father to his dying breath.

What came his way was not what he had expected. A massive shadow loomed over him, taking the shape of a monster Wind had only ever seen in Wild's pictographs.

Out of nowhere, a blackish-sliver blur rushed at what Wind recognized as a lynel, sinking its jaws into the beast's throat. 

Wolfie had arrived.

* * *

"Try now," said Hyrule, handing Time the Ocarina. He coughed, a spatter of red blooming in the crux of his elbow. His head felt fuzzy and his breaths shallow. Time picked up the Ocarina. This was why he usually saved the healing for  _ after _ the battle.

The lynel bucked again, but Wolfie's jaws never left its neck. Instead, Wolfie waved through the air like a bloodthirsty flag as the lynel tried to shake it from its neck.

Time held the Ocarina in his hands that shook minutely.

The lynel managed to dislodge Wolfie from his neck and the beast vanished into the chaos.

Time raised the Ocarina to his lips.

Wind charged at the lynel.

Time began to play.

Wind drove his sword into the lynel's skull.

The world went white.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nyehehehehehehehehe


	5. Fear Centers

Time opened his eye. He was greeted by a quiet, flickering campfire. A gentle breeze filtered through the trees, rustling the leaves and causing a soothing melody to wash over Time.

He was not soothed.

Lungs still heaving, sweat still pouring down his face, blood still rushing through his ears, he frantically cast his gaze around the campsite.

Four laid curled up, snoring quietly. Twilight slept next to him, chest rising and falling slowly. Sky was sprawled out, spare limbs draping over Warriors and Legend on either side, their backs to him. Wind was curled up against Warriors, wrapped in Warrior's scarf in his trademark Wind Burrito™. Hyrule slept soundly on the other side of Legend. Sitting by the fire was Wild, the warm glow gently illuminating his features. Wild. He had disappeared partway through the battle. Time had seen him jump into the air and throw some kind of shield, but he hadn't seen him since. The fear and dread still hung bunched up and writhing inside of Time's chest, and the sight of his companions laying on the ground—despite being safe and asleep—was less than comforting to the man who had sat next to Warriors and Sky as they breathed their last.

 _How long?_ shot through Time's thoughts like a beamos' laser. How long until the battle? How much time did he have to prepare? Was it tomorrow? Today? How much time? Where were they? _How fast could they run?_

"Wild," Time started, startling Wild so much that he fell off the log he was seated on. "Wild, what day is it?" he growled, rushing towards Wild and grabbing him by the shoulders. "What day is it?"

Wild stared up at him, wide-eyed and terrified, still breathing heavily from the initial scare. The firelight caught Wild's scars and the fear in his eyes, but Time didn't budge. He must have looked like a demon.

"T-tuesday morning?"

" _Which_ Tuesday?"

Wild took a deep, wary breath and gently placed his hand over Time's forearm. "We've been in Hyrule's Hyrule for a few days now. There hasn't been a Tuesday since we got here,"—It had been Thursday. They had two days. Tuesday and Wednesday and then it would be the day of the battle. If they could change course enough, avoid that clearing by far enough— "It's okay. Everyone is safe. Do you want to go and listen to them all breathing? Or I could wake them up if you want."

"It's a little too late for that."

Twilight stood up from his sleeping bag, running a hand through his hair while blinking to adjust to the firelight. His getting up had woken Four as well. Warriors sat up, too, watching Time carefully. In the process, he had stirred Wind and Sky, the latter of which groggily rubbed his eyes (The former could not rub his eyes because he was a Burrito™). Sky getting up had disturbed Legend, who accidentally woke Hyrule. There were downsides to sleeping in such a tight-knit cuddle pile.

Time watched his family moving painlessly and easily and relatively relaxed for getting woken up in the middle of the night by a screaming Time. Sky and Wind seemed about to go back to sleep but Hyrule woke them fully. Time looked traumatized. He figured they'd need all hands on deck. The sight of his family warmed Time's heart ever so slightly, but he still let his eye pour over all of them, searching for any sign of pain. Everyone looked in perfect condition. It made sense, after all. They hadn't run into many monsters in Hyrule's Hyrule. Now Time knew why.

As Time looked to Warriors, he couldn't help but remember his terrified, frozen face, the ice crystals crusted onto his hair and eyelashes, and the dagger clutched in his bloody hand. Sky's groggy but otherwise pleasant face was a stark contrast from the adrenaline-high expression of pure determination, but Time couldn't get the sight of his glassy, dead eyes out from where they were etched into his soul. Hyrule, bright eyed, looking 50 years younger than he had the last time Time saw him, padded over cautiously. He would never forget the final, wet coughs that escaped his lips as Time played the first notes of the song. Wind wriggled out of his Burrito, no longer clutching a black-stained sword in his bloody hands. His eyes were peaceful and foggy with sleep, not cold and hardened to sharpened daggers like they had been in the fight. Wild sat next to him, regaining his composure after Time had untangled himself from the Champion. Wild was there, right in front of him, not lost in the chaos. Twilight stood, looking down at Time with a concerned and caring expression on his face, no longer the bloodthirsty wolf sinking its fangs into the throat of a mindless beast. The others, though he hadn't seen them in the battle, all worked their way over in varying stages of tiredness. They were safe. Everyone was safe.

Before Time realized what he was doing, his hand was outstretched and beckoning them closer. Who Time was pointing to, he couldn't say. The Links worked their way closer, uncertain but determined to provide whatever comfort they could. Time beat them to it, diving at Hyrule and gathering the flustered brunette up in his arms. Time was still wearing his armor, bloodied and blackened and stinking of sweat, but Hyrule hugged him back anyway, nearly suffocating in the strength of his grip. Time breathed in the sweet earthy scent of Hyrule's hair like a drowning victim taking in air. He pressed a small kiss to the crown of Hyrule’s head.

"Thank you," Time said, doing all he could to thank the hero who had watched two of his brothers die at his side as he abandoned them to heal Time.

"It's my pleasure," Hyrule said simply. He had a sinking feeling Time wasn't referring to the hug, but he knew he would be willing to do anything to make sure everyone made it out okay, anyway. 

Time loosened the hug just enough to look to Warriors and say: "You. Take off that dagger I know you're hiding and get in here."

Warriors paused a moment in confusion before unstrapping a dagger from his thigh and tossing it on the ground. Time grabbed his tunic and pulled him into his arms as well.

"Sky, you too. All of you. . . Please."

Sky enthusiastically wrapped Time in the biggest hug he could, Wind, Twilight, Four, and Wild joining uncertainly. Legend was dragged into it by a hand on his tunic. It was awkward being all squished together, especially with Time wearing his armor, but they did their best. The hug loosened after a moment, and Time worked his way through the bundle of boys, pressing a kiss to each of their heads. _Alive, alive, safe, alive_ , a constant mantra through his head.

Eventually, they untangled entirely as Warriors went, "alright, Time. What went down."

"Let's sit by the fire. This is going to be a long story."

Time pulled off his armor, cleaned up a little, and changed into one of Warriors' spare tunics at Twilight's insistence and Warriors' minimal frustration. He sat by the fire, his back to a log, one arm wrapped around Hyrule and Sky on his other side. Wind insisted on sitting in his lap. It was unlike him to agree to do something so childish, but he had swallowed his pride. Time needed this. The others sat around the fire, Warriors insisting on sitting opposite Time so they could talk strategy. Time only agreed if Warriors wasn't allowed anywhere near any kind of weapon. 

The Links shuddered at the implication of what Warriors might have done.

"Whoa, Time, let me have a look at that arm of yours," Hyrule said, examining Time's arm. Faint white magic glowed from his hands and it made Time nearly sick. "What the... why is your arm full of tiny bone fragments? Your nerves and tendons are all fine, your muscles seem somewhat patched up, but... why didn't I start with the bone?" He looked up to Time, his hazel eyes deep pools of worry. Hyrule's fingers began dancing along Time's arm, a rose-white sheen flickering in the air. Time gritted his teeth against the feeling of bone fragments sliding under his skin. The arm around Sky tightened into a crushing grip out of pain and fear. The Chosen Hero squirmed uncomfortably. 

"Hey, Hyrule. Maybe hold off on that for a second?"

Hyrule looked up, shocked. "I really shouldn't. Some idiot healed the muscle _around_ the shattered bone fragments. I have to do it now or it's only going to get worse."

Sky looked up to Time, who nodded minutely, terror writhing in his gut. Hyrule resumed and he tried to keep his voice level.

"On Thursday, we'll pass by this clearing. It'll be..." How should he tell the story? They certainly didn't need to hear all four parts. That would only worry them. He'd give them a combined story, telling it as if it had only happened once. They wouldn't need the battle intelligence anyway; they wouldn't be fighting this time. "We'll see a whole group of them, just waiting to attack. A veritable battalion of them. We try to take them out. My uh... my arm gets broken. I couldn't play the Ocarina with it like that so I had to get Hyrule to heal it during the battle. We had to prioritize anything that let me play. Bone was... not that." Hyrule winced and the other Links watched intently.

"Eventually, Hyrule managed to heal it enough that I could play and I rewound to here. We're going to change course and avoid that clearing," Time finished.

"Alright, alright, alright," Warriors started, Legend rolling his eyes in expectation of a splurge of tactical mumbo-jumbo.

What Warriors said instead blindsided Legend. "That's BS. You said it was going to be a long story. That was only a couple of sentences. That means it was considerably longer for you but you're not telling us about it. And why did Hyrule have to heal your arm? Both Legend and Four can play, if I recall correctly. Besides, why are we even fleeing that battle? We have two days to prepare. You know as well as I do that portals generally appear after we've fought a powerful enemy or a swarm of infected monsters. If we want to leave Hyrule's Hyrule—no offense to Hyrule—we'll need to fight them eventually. What aren't you telling us."

Time sighed. Warriors hadn't pressed him like this in a while. Granted, he hadn't tried to hide this much from Warriors in a while.

"What do you want me to say?" Asked Time, surprised at how riled up he was getting. He sat up straighter, Jostling Wind, Sky, and Hyrule. He pulled his good arm away from Sky and began gesticulating violently as he spoke. "Do you want me to tell you how many times I tried? How many of us died? How that f*cking lizard outsmarted every move we made? How every single time I rewound, it got worse? The first time I tried, only Wind died. This last time? _Everyone but_ Wind died. If I rewind again—"

Time couldn't finish. He began breaking down in sobs, tears rolling down his face in volumes from his left eye. How he'd managed to hold himself together this long was a mystery, but saying it out loud had finally done him in. Hyrule stopped healing his arm, not wanting to put him through any more pain. Sky, Wind, and Hyrule snuggled in tighter, hugging Time as he closed his eye and sobbed.

"Nice going, Warriors," Legend muttered sarcastically from the other side of the campfire, "you made the Old Man break down in tears."

"No," Four cut in, a calculating gleam in his eye, "he needed this." He turned to the shocked Legend. "How long do you think he's been bottling this up?"

Legend looked back to Time, at the way the weight in his shoulders lifted ever so slightly, at the deep bags hanging under his eyes, at the blood still crusted in his hair and on his face. Twilight stood behind the log Time was leaning against and hugged him from behind. Wild joined, too. Warriors, Legend, and Four sat with soft smiles on their faces as Time's eye drooped shut and his breathing leveled out.

Once he knew Time was asleep, Twilight stood carefully, a new, sad gleam now visible in his eye as he draped his wolf pelt over his mentor’s shoulders. Wild laid next to him on the other side of the log, resting his head against Time's back. Twilight sat on the other side of Time, carefully picking flecks of blood out of his blond hair.

Once Twilight was sure he hadn't woken the man, he opened his mouth to speak.

"So are we gonna redirect? It sounds like he's tried enough times and I..."

"You don't want to put him through that again. None of us do." Four crossed his arms.

"But the point stands," Warriors stated evenly, "That we'll need to fight these enemies. It's why we’re _here_."

"How grateful and benevolent of the goddess to turn us into her personal pest control service," grumbled Legend. "I'm tempted not to fight them just to spite her."

"I'm surprised you haven't tried that before," joked Four, knowing full well that he probably had.

Legend sighed and stared into the fire.

"Let's decide in the morning. The Old Man needs his rest and we won't be able to make any decisions without him"

The gentle morning glow that entered the forest illuminated a pile of sleeping heroes, Twilight insisting on taking watch. Whether he did it out of stress, protectiveness, or just wanted to continue picking all the blood out of Time's hair is anyone's guess. Soon, shafts of light pierced through the loose ceiling of leaves. Nobody stirred save Wild.

Twilight and Wild looked to each other and nodded, Twilight reluctantly standing and building the fire back up as Wild dug through his slate in search of breakfast. Hylia, when was the last time Time had eaten?

He prepared a certifiable feast, and the sound and scent of oil sizzling in the pot was enough to wake the sleeping Links. Time jolted awake first, his eye darting around and blinking rapidly as he took in his surroundings. The pile of heroes sleepily stirring on top of him was enough to ground him, and he sat back against the log. Safe.

Wild handed Time a bowl of eggs with mushroom and wild onion, and Time accepted it gratefully. It smelled heavenly. Reaching for the spoon Wild held out to him, however, was a mistake. His right arm flared up in protest, and it fell limply by his side. Wild looked at him worriedly, Twilight watching him carefully from the side, as Time scanned for somewhere to put his bowl. The patchwork quilt of Links covering him made that rather difficult. Wild took the bowl back with a quiet snicker, and Time waited for Wind to finish waking up and get out of his lap.

The Links all settled down around the fireplace, enjoying the extra-extravagant breakfast Wild had made. Time set the bowl in his lap, eating with his left hand. Hyrule impatiently bounced his leg on the ground, having already finished his breakfast. He was itching to get back to work on Time's arm. They really shouldn't have left it as long as they had.

Time winced, the healing magic pouring over his skin and tingling familiarly. He had refused to be healed unless he had Warriors and Sky there in front of him, breathing. The group sat in a loose cluster near the fire as Wild prepared lunch. Last time, they had woken up and started walking almost immediately. Now it was almost midday, the group giving Time the time he needed to heal, eat, sleep, and relax.

He couldn't relax, though. Here they were, sitting ducks in the forest. It was a two-day journey to the clearing, but the monsters had had to rebuild the watchtower. They hadn’t already been assembled there, they had poured in from every direction. They had been scattered, but organized and under instruction. Time shuddered to think what would await their group if they gave the monsters more time to prepare.

But now that was exactly what they were doing, wasn't it. Here Time was, chatting and cuddling and getting cleaned up and healing when he _should_ be planning and strategizing and _moving._ Hyrule jolted him out of his thoughts by smacking lightly on the back of the head. Time startled and looked at Hyrule, astonished. It really shouldn't have been a surprise, though. Hyrule had been dragging him out of his anxious thoughts all morning, although not by smacking him until now. 

"Don't you start that again. I've told you before and I'll tell you again. This isn't a waste of time because _I'm healing your arm._ We all know you can barely play the Ocarina, let alone fight, like this. If it turns out waiting was a bad idea, you can rewind to before you decided to wait. At least then, you'd be well-rested, healed, and ready to fight." Time nodded, but he gained no comfort from Hyrule's words. He couldn't go back. There was no way. They only barely scraped by, that last time. Every time he went back, it had only gotten worse and worse and worse and worse and— _Smack._

"Though," Warriors' broke in from where he sat with the other Links in a loose semicircle that had formed around Time and Hyrule, "we do need to decide on a course of action at some point." Time nodded. "Hyrule, do you have a map?" Hyrule looked up from Time's arm too quickly. A red blush began creeping up his neck and the tips of his ears. He shook his head minutely, face burning. Warriors _loved_ pouring over maps and strategizing, even if Hyrule suspected that he only liked having maps so he could use them as props while making battle plans. Nothing makes someone look like a competent strategist better than a map does. 

"Do you know where we can get one?" 

"There... aren't any?" He peeped out, ducking his head slightly.

The group laughed at Warriors' aghast facial expression and Hyrule became indignant. "Most of them got destroyed or are largely inaccurate now, anyway. Any and all maps and records are being studied and updated now that Ganon's gone." 

As they were talking, Time had been using his free hand to doodle a rough sketch in the dirt. "It's a bit like this. This is what we did"—he drew a line that wavered slightly, but headed mostly north—"I think. The clearing's about here." 

"And where are Dawn and Aurora?" 

"I don't think it really matters anymore anyway. We were just going to ask them if there were any reports of monster attacks so we could fight them. We've found our monsters." 

Time clenched his jaw, deep in thought. "They weren't set up in the clearing, though, that's just where we fought. They poured in from every direction and had to build their tower from scratch. They blew a horn and more arrived. They were all spread out, almost like they were fanned out and searching, until they found us. Then The Shadow arrived and organized them. They're working intelligently." The group nodded, deep in thought. 

"What do you think they were looking for?" Hyrule asked. There was a bit of an awkward pause before Hyrule continued. "I mean us, of course they're looking for _us_ , but which _one_ of us? Like did they target any of us? Were they looking for something one of us has? Like the Master Sword or some super powerful magic item?" The group looked at Legend at that last sentence.

"Don't look at me! Why would they want me?" 

"How many adventures did you say you went on?" 

"How many times have you _killed Ganon_?" 

" _How_ many items do you have?" 

"OKAY okay I get it. I might be a target, but so could any of us. I mean I'm not the only one with powerful magic items." 

Twilight refocused the conversation. "So Time, who _did_ they target?"

Time sighed. "First it was Wind. They probably thought he was our weakest Link, or maybe our morale booster," Wind bristled at the implication, "but he proved them very wrong. It took a whole hoard, a watchtower, and a few bublins to even put a scratch on him." Time smiled slightly with pride. Wind had fought valiantly in every timeline, and Time regarded him as just as much of a hero as everyone else.

Time didn't want to tell them about every iteration and he didn't want them to know who had died. That trauma was his and his alone. "Later,"—oh yeah, judging by their facial expressions, they had definitely picked up that he had skipped a run or two—"they singled me out as the leader and targeted me. However, every run, everyone got attacked viciously. My hypothesis is that they found out that there's a bunch of heroes frolicking about, thinning their army, and want us all dead."

They all sat in silence for a moment. "We don't have a map, so we have no way of knowing where the best place to make a stand is," Warriors mused, studying Time's doodle in the dirt. 

"Funnel."

All heads snapped to the source of the word. Twilight. 

"In my Hyrule, I had to deal with hordes of these mounted monsters, bulbins and their bublos. When they got to be too many, I could go onto Edlin Bridge. It funneled them down so I couldn't get surrounded and only a few could get to me at a time. Though," he added with a glance to the side, "I generally ended up having to duel their leader on the bridge. It was not easy. Once, I got surrounded on both sides and had to jump off." 

"Choke points." That was Warriors. "If we can find somewhere where they're forced to go one at a time, like a bridge or a valley or a mountain pass, we can make our stand there. It'll thin the number of them we have to deal with at a time. We'd be able to rotate through, only having half of us fighting at any given moment—the path is only so wide, after all—while the others rest. We can whittle down their numbers." Time nodded slowly. This was different. Very different. Not at all like it had been. If they could find a mountain pass, they'd have the high ground. There would be no watchtowers and no bomb arrows. Nobody would get surrounded and drown by the writing swarm of monsters. This could work.

They asked if Hyrule knew of any mountains nearby, and he thought for a moment. Time watched Hyrule's brow furrow as he carefully considered the terrain. He was still healing Time, though, and didn't look fatigued at all. Perhaps it was because he was working slower? or maybe nerve damage took more effort to heal than his bone and muscle. Either way, Time was relieved that Hyrule didn't look to be pushing himself too hard. The brunet paused in his healing and began expanding on the map Time had sketched in the dirt. He generally didn't think from a birds-eye view, but if he visualized which direction he walked to get to certain places from other ones, he could create a faint map in his head. He expanded the forest, added the river they had crossed a few days ago, and then seemed to realize something. He kept drawing the river for a little while before adding some shapes that eventually took the shape of a mountain range. "I think I know a place."

A new energy filled the camp. Now they had a plan, a purpose, and Time felt marginally better about the situation. Hyrule had done all the healing he could do for the moment, and ordered Time to keep his arm in a sling for the rest of the day. Hyrule would try to put the finishing touches on it that night. Time reluctantly agreed. He headed over to his bedroll and started packing up his things one-handed. His hand hovered over his bag for a moment. What if— 

His thoughts were interrupted by Twilight coming over to help and ignoring Time's attempts to shoo him away. Time tried to reach for his bag, but Twilight moved the bag closer to himself. Time pouted minutely at that, before something occurred to him and he went over to where Legend was packing up his things.

"Legend," the hero looked up inquisitively. Time dropped the Ocarina in his lap. "Can you play this?"

Legend's brow furrowed, and he froze in his packing, his bedroll unfurling slightly. "Time, you're planning something stupid, aren't you. I'm not letting you get yourself get killed—" 

"Legend, please. I'm trying to be practical here. My arm broke and I couldn't play. I needed you to play the right hand for me, but it didn't work all the way and I only made it halfway back through the battle. It doesn't make sense to only have one person who can play—" 

"Huh. That's weird." 

Time blinked. 

Where Legend had been sitting and holding his bedroll, he was now standing, the Ocarina in his hands rather than his lap. "You told me to rewind to when Twilight came over to your bedroll, but I can't go any farther back than this." Time blinked again. Legend started explaining.

"You ended up convincing me to give it a shot. I did. I can't go back any farther than this, though." Time thought for a moment. 

"Maybe it's because you didn't have the Ocarina before? Whenever I go back, I'm always holding it. That works because the Time I rewind back to _also_ has the Ocarina. If you try to rewind back any further, I un-give the Ocarina to you, and then you’d get stuck. If you could somehow keep going, we'd have duplicate Ocarinas and that would probably break something important in the fabric of the universe." Legend nodded, processing Time's hypothesis. 

"Makes sense. So that means we can only rewind back to a moment in which we ourselves have the Ocarina." 

"Hang onto that for a while," Time said, standing up. "I want you to give yourself a nice big window."

Legend nodded and tucked it into a pouch on his hip. How many ocarinas did he have now?

They moved out, heading northwest rather than straight north. That should get them to the mountains and avoid the clearing where most of the monsters had seemed congregated. Time was, over the course of the day, stricken with moments of panic when he couldn't find his ocarina before remembering he'd given it to Legend. They travelled for the rest of the day, though there wasn't much of it left, and set up camp for the night. Time somehow found himself buried under a cuddle pile again and did not complain one bit.

Wednesday passed, the group very much on edge, but no monsters were anywhere to be seen. Twilight had gone ahead to scout at one point and when he returned a few hours later, Time asked him if he had smelled anything off. Twilight's initial warning about the pervading stench in the air still haunted him. The Ordonian shook his head. "Faint, lingering traces like some passed through here a day or two ago. They headed north." Time nodded. They were acting the same as they had last time: fanning out before grouping up in the north.

Legend handed the Ocarina back to Time that night.

Time woke up the next morning. It had been nice, the past few days of calm and spending time with his boys, but it was wearing on him. The suspense, the anticipation, the dread. He _knew_ they were going to get attacked. Today was Thursday. The day that it had all gone down. This was it. Breakfast passed, entirely ordinary. Hyrule had finally deemed Time's arm fully healed and let him take it out of its sling. They set out, heading northwest. The forest remained dense and Hyrule informed them that it would probably be another two days until they reached the mountains. They just had to survive until Saturday, and then they could make their stand. If Hyrule's estimations were correct. And there weren't monsters in the mountains. And they didn't get killed on the way there. Time was feeling positively wonderful.

They walked through the woods like they normally did, Hyrule and Wild in front, Time right behind them so he could keep his eye on them, and the rest of the Links loosely following behind, chatting in groups and teasing each other. It was a little more subdued today, they had to watch for danger and all, but the boys didn't want to travel all day in tense silence, so they chatted quietly. The soft murmuring of conversation was drowned in Time’s endless rush of anxious thoughts.

They reached the river at lunchtime. So they were on course with Hyrule's estimations, then. Time was too anxious to sit still for long, though, and the others noticed this. They mercifully decided to eat as they walked, munching on snacks and fruit from Wild's slate. Twilight tried to talk to him, to calm him down a bit and help him loosen up, but unbeknownst to him, he and Time had been chatting casually in the woods when everything started and Time did _not_ need his brain taking him back there right now. He needed to stay focused and alert.

Dinner came, and they found a nice grove of beech trees to spend the night in. Wild started cooking and Time paced anxiously around the campsite. Were they really getting off the hook that easily? There was no way. Hylia had never been so kind to him. Never. If the last few runs were any indication, this would be the worst one yet. There was no way they could just walk in another direction and be done with it. There was no way.

" _TIME!_ " A call broke him out of his thoughts. Were they in danger? Were they being attacked? Was someone injured? "Time! It's dinnertime! Come and get some before it gets cold!" Time tried to snap himself out of his paranoia and enjoy the meal, but he couldn't. Them all sitting around like this, eating casually, enjoying Wild's meal, there was no way it was that simple. They couldn't go through the whole day without a hitch. It didn't make any sense. Hylia wouldn’t start being kind to him now. He barely touched his food before offering to do a quick patrol around camp. Before anyone could stop him, he left.

"I'd say 'does anyone know what's wrong with Time?' " Legend started, "but we all know the answer to that. The Old Man looks like he's on death's door. Paranoia'll kill him before any monsters do."

"But what can we do?" asked Twilight. "Every time I try to comfort him, I get the feeling that I'm reminding him of something but I don't know what it is so I don't know how to help!" He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. 

"You know there's no way we're going to be able to help him besides staying near him and comforting him when he needs it. We can't understand what he's going through. If we try telling him it's going to be alright, he wouldn't believe us because we weren't there," Four said, polishing his sword.

Time returned, scanning the dusky forest suspiciously. Wild added more stew to Time's bowl and put it back in front of him. 

"Eat." Time did, slowly and not very much, but he knew he'd need as much energy as he could muster, despite every fiber of his being wanting to throw it up. They settled into an uneasy slumber, Time once again buried under a pile of boys, but this time, he had to make sure his sword arm was free and he could turn his head freely. He might have slept, he wasn't sure. He didn't remember seeing the watches change, though he remembered seeing Wild, Warriors, and Twilight on watch (they insisted he sleep). He didn't remember closing his eyes, but the night felt shorter than it normally did when he stayed up, so he assumed he had slept at some point. It was something about being surrounded by the people he loved and trusted most in the world, barring Malon, that both calmed him and terrified him. Calmed him because they were all here, around him and safe, but terrified him because they could be ripped away from him at any moment.

The sun steadily rose above the horizon, a gentle caress of light returning to the forest scene around him. Time had never been more happy to see a Friday in his life. They did it. They'd survived. They packed up, ate breakfast, and set off again. Time still scanned the woods, but they were farther along than they were last time. Now, things really were different: a different place _and_ a different time. Time had no way of knowing what would happen next, but in a way it was reassuring. He wouldn’t be stuck back in that battle again.

The forest began to thin, not being quite so dense and old anymore. It was a little while after lunch, and Time called for them to regroup.

"The forest is thinning. Is there a field or clearing ahead? I don't want to walk blindly into the open again." Hyrule thought for a moment. "If we are where I think we are, then there should be a ridge of mountains with desert to left and a field to the right. We should be on the side with the desert; that way, we can come over the pass to where there's a big ol' field on the other side. We camp out in the mountains, lure them up, and whittle them down." The group gave a collective nod of agreement. 

"Wild, can you climb one of these trees and look ahead? I'd hate to get caught unawares."

Wild nodded and began gracefully bounding up through the branches of the tallest tree nearby. It would have been a lot easier had he had Revali's Gale, but the other Champions were resting peacefully now after the defeat of the Calamity. Wild would hate to disturb their eternal rest for the sake of a little bit of power. He still couldn't see through the foliage of the other trees, so he continued climbing. The pine needles on the pine tree he chose became denser as he climbed, though, and even though he was now well above the canopy, he still couldn't see anything.

Gripping the trunk with his legs, he drew his sword and sliced a branch from the tree, opening up a window of vision. He could see the forest thin out and begin to climb up the sloping ridges of some mountains. The mountains, though, were on their left, not their right.

Wild cut another branch, watching it fall through the canopy. He quietly hoped it hit Legend in the head. Through the larger opening in the foliage, he could make out... what _was_ that?

A great black stain stretched across the flat area, stopping at the base of the mountains and the edge of the forest. The black stain extended back for a while before fading to green. Was it malice? No, it wasn't shiny and didn’t have a pinkish aura around it. Squinting more, he could make out what looked like dead trees sticking up amidst the black. There were also great big mounds of dark like hills or boulders. Had there been a forest fire?

He put his sword back and pulled out his Sheikah Slate, zooming in on the area in front of him. Those weren't trees, they were banners. Banners hanging on poles, a bright, bloody red insignia branded onto each inky black banner. Those weren't mounds or rocks, they were _hinoxes._ The ash on the ground was a swarm of enemies: bokoblins, lizalfos, moblins, bulbins, bulbos, and lynels. He thought he could make out the familiar blue lights of guardians and other silhouettes he didn’t recognize farther back. In the distance, he could make out inky black ovals hovering in the air. Black shadows poured out of them at an alarming rate and though they were too far away to make out clearly, he had no doubt that they were spewing out monsters. He snapped a quick picture, one to capture the number and another to capture the selection of monsters.

Wild dropped to the ground in front of the other Links. They could tell something was wrong just by the look on his face. "Time? You said last time you fought a battalion of monsters, right?" Time nodded slowly. "Well over there... there's an army"

The group exploded into shock and confusion. 

"What?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"You're kidding." 

"Hey! Let's listen to the rest of Wild's report." Warriors nodded to Wild. 

"We're on the northern side of the mountains. The desert might be on the other side of them; I couldn't see. Ahead, there was a whole army of them. I couldn't take a very good estimate, but—" he flipped through his Sheikah Slate and produced the picture he took and showed it to the group "—there are about this many, though there were more pouring out of portals in the back."

"Are those _lynels_?" 

"What are those giants?"

"They look like hinoxes." 

"There's so many of them!"

"Guys? I think Time's hyperventilating."

Seven heads snapped to where Wind stood next to a kneeling, hyperventilating Time, trying to calm him down. Four walked over to him, nearly the same height as him, and put his hand on Time's shoulder. 

"Slow down your breaths. Everything is going to be okay. They are there and we are here. We are not in battle. Breathe with me. In," he breathed in, "out," he exhaled. Time tried to follow along, but was shuddering too much to breathe evenly.

"Here," Legend said, holding out an ice cube, his ice rod in his other hand. "I… _hear_ it's good to suck on ice cubes during a panic attack." Four gratefully accepted the ice, and once Time slowed his breaths enough that he wouldn't choke on it, Four gave it to him.

While Time calmed down with Four's guidance, the rest of the group discussed their options. Warriors had kicked away the layer of leaves on a portion of the forest floor and began sketching a map of the battlefield with a stick. 

Sky watched Warriors make his markings in the dirt. "Do we cross over the mountains now? If we backtrack and head to the other side, we can funnel them according to the original plan.”

"I don't think so. If they went from a battalion to an army in one day, imagine what they could do in a few more. Those monsters must be pouring in from every one of our worlds. I don't know if we can wait that long," Warriors mused, staring at his map as if it held the secret to victory somewhere between its markings. 

"So what do you expect us to do? Rush in blindly?" Legend crossed his arms. "There's so many of them and they're all so close together. Can't we just set them on fire?" 

"They d-don't ... burn," Time managed to squeeze out between shuddering breaths. Four tried to tell him to take some more deep breaths, but he insisted on speaking anyway, unsteadily rising to his feet. "I have an idea." Time pulled the Ocarina from his pouch and tossed it to Legend.

Legend stared at Time, fear and fury in his eyes, "hold on a damn second, Old Man! We're not going to have you getting yourself killed out there! You taught me to play it as a backup! As an _emergency_! You're just running into this blindly! What are you, suicidal?" 

Time paused for a second too long. 

"This _is_ an emergency. Their numbers are growing seemingly exponentially. We don't have time for clever strategies and plans. We need to eradicate them. Luckily, I have a tool for that.”

Twilight stood up in a flash and rushed to Time, grabbing his mentor's forearms and staring into his eye. "Time! Time you promised you would never use that! What if it doesn't let go?" 

"Legend has the Ocarina. If worst comes to worst, he can go back and try again. I _can't_ go back. Not again. Not after last time." The other Links looked on in fear. What were they talking about? Whatever it was, it did _not_ sound good.

"Time, explain." Warriors. "We need to be on the same page here. How else can we expect to fight alongside you?" 

"You shouldn't need to." 

"Time—" Warriors started, but Legend butted in first, stepping forward and slapping Time across the face. The group went silent, Time staring down at Legend in complete and utter shock. 

"NO, Time." Legend straightened his posture to try to make himself seem taller. " _You_ listen _here_ . You're always trying to be mysterious and protect us from your pain but _use your f***ing head for once in your life!_ " Legend was yelling now. "You spent however many _months_ burying our corpses and crying your eyes out and writing down the last words of people who _don't even exist anymore!_ You would have known that, had you _told us_ and let Sky check for you. _Eighty-seven times, Time!_ EIGHTY SEVEN! It could have been one. _One._ But _no,_ you’ve gotta go off and be all protective and powerful and silently bear the burdens of the group! For the love of Hylia, we're heroes too! _I_ slayed Ganon more times than _you_ did! We've all done things that sound like a fantasy to you, just like fighting the moon sounds like a fantasy to us. We have an insane and amazing slew of abilities and we are all competent and confident fighters with ideas and expertise and _conscious, thinking minds!_ We can _help!_ We _want_ to help! So stop being a stuck up bastard and **_TALK TO US!!!_ **"

Legend was panting, tears welling up in his eyes and hands curled up into fists, one accusatory finger leveled right at Time. "How do you _know_ we don't have something that can help? How do you _know_ that whatever BS you're trying to pull off wouldn't be made any easier by some of our abilities? Tell us the whole story behind what you're going to try and do and all the risks behind it. Then we, _collectively_ , will come to a consensus, and then put that plan into action. Like a team. Like a _family._ "

Time sunk to his knees, the other Links too stunned to speak. Legend had not only snapped at Time, but he was _crying_. "So tell us… what are you planning?"

Time sighed. "This," Time reached into his bag and gingerly extracted a mask. A wall of white hair splayed out from the back of it, its eyes pure white and its face eerily similar to Time's. The markings on the mask matched the ones on Time's face, though they were symmetrical, rather than only on one side, "is the Fierce Deity mask. It houses a spirit powerful enough to kill a god." A symphony of gasps and _Hylia above_ 's rose from the heroes. "However," Time pause, stroking the mask's cheek nostalgically with a fond, pained smile, "it's rather clingy. It's not exactly a fan of being removed."

Silence. "So how exactly do we... _remove_ it once you're done?" Sky asked, eyeing it warily. 

"I'm not entirely sure. Last time I tried to remove it... it..." He'd never told anyone about this. Except for Malon, but that's because she'd known him before he had the marks and, well, she could be very persuasive. But he had to tell the boys. Legend was crying because of his stupidity. He buried his boys eighty-seven times because of his stupidity. Never again. Inhale. Exhale. He gestured helplessly to his face. "It marked me." Twilight stiffened, his eyes hardening at the mask in hatred. 

"So that's off the table then," he growled, "glad we had this talk. Meeting adjourned." 

"Twilight, be reasonable! It's the nine of us versus that entire army!" Time pleaded. He wasn't used to pleading. "There's no standing army in this Hyrule we can call on and the number of enemies out there is rising as we speak. Do you have a better idea? One, _single,_ better idea?" 

Twilight opened his mouth, but at the wavering in Time's voice and the welling tears in his eye, Twilight could tell Time didn't really want to do it either. They were cornered. Right now they had the advantage of surprise, but that wouldn't last very long either. They really had no choice.

"So!" Warriors called out to the group, rubbing his hands together in preparation. "We have power; now we need a plan. Does anyone know who their commander is?" 

"The Shadow. It takes the form of a pitch black lizalfos with beady red eyes, but I'm willing to bet rupees it can change form. It gives orders by way of these... hissing whistles. I don't know how that would work on a larger scale, but that's what it did in the clearing. The other monsters respond immediately to its commands. It's a tactical master, analyzing every formation and breaking it apart. If we try to be more loosely organized and plan less, it targets whoever is giving the orders." Warriors nodded. 

"If we can take out The Shadow, then, the army should turn to mindless beasts. They won't be any weaker, but they'll be dumber and that's a greater boon than you’d think."

"If he always targets the leader," Legend added, "then we shouldn't have one. We should have a general plan, but it should be adaptable. Everyone should have the same commands that they can give, and we should all respond. We'll all be soldiers and we'll all be commanders. We'll have to _trust each other,_ " he eyed Time pointedly, "to know what to do." 

Time sighed. "I don't want to get too close to The Shadow as the Fierce Deity. That mask is raw power. I can already barely control it as is.”—Twilight cringed at that—“If that creature is what I think it is, then I don't want that corrupting influence anywhere near me. I'll try to wipe out as many of the monsters as I can, but you'll need to keep The Shadow contained and away from me." 

"This is an absolute travesty of tactics and I hate it with every fiber of my being," groaned Warriors. "Let's do it"

Heroes of every land, era, element, and dimension stood at the edge of the clearing, watching the camps upon camps upon regiments upon battalions of monsters spread out before them. 

Time held up three fingers. 

Warriors crouched in a battle position and brandished his sword, a borrowed fire rod tucked into his belt. Twilight stood next to him, a dangerous looking spiked metal ball on the end of a long, thick chain by his side. Wind held two massive hammers larger than he was, one in each hand. 

Time dropped to two fingers.

Wild held a Great Thunderblade in one hand, all his best weapons waiting just inside his Sheikah Slate. A spare sword from Legend was strapped on his back, as a backup in case everything else broke. Hyrule crouched at the ready, glowing tendrils of magic curling from his fingertips and making the air around him shimmer. Legend braced himself, a total of twenty-three rings across all of his fingers. A chain of medallions hung around his neck and in one hand he brandished his fire rod, his magic rod in the other. His ice rod was clenched between his teeth. A red cape hung from his shoulders. 

Time dropped to one finger.

Four held a stack of rods borrowed from Legend, a fire rod, ice rod, tornado rod, and sand rod tucked under his armpit, free hand resting on the Four Sword. Sky brandished the Master Sword, an eerie, eager blue glint dancing across its edge. Last stood Time, taking deep breaths, an unassuming mask clutched in his left hand.

His final finger fell.

" **_NOW!!_ **" Cried Time, and all hell and heaven rained down their fury in the form of nine very powerful people, only one of them over thirty.

They dove into the fray, Wind peeling off to the left and Wild to the right. They'd scan for The Shadow and could alert each other over the farthest range using the slate and pendant. They could signal to everyone in between with whistles. The rest fanned out, tearing through the ranks of the enemy, searching for The Shadow. Time stood at the edge of the forest, a white-knuckled grasp on the mask in his hand. He wasn't to enter the battle until he received the signal that they'd found The Shadow. They had been worried that it would be harder to get Time back if he put on the mask while wounded. Agreeing was the only concession he could make.

Once sufficiently lost in the fray, Four split. Vio took the sand rod, Green the tornado rod, Blue the ice rod, and Red the fire rod. Each of them had always had an affinity for their respective element and Vio suspected that, if given the opportunity, they could harness them quite effectively. He was right. They massacred their foes, Vio creating walls of sand to trap groups of enemies and Red turning those prisons into ovens. Blue created daggers of ice that Green whipped around in a hurricane, tearing through the ranks of the enemy.

Twilight spun his ball and chain in vicious circles, sending enemies flying every which way. Showers of inky blood rained down around him as he plunged through the ranks of unaware monsters, painting a black streak of death. Wind smashed his hammers into the ground, creating shockwaves that stunned enemies as Warriors rushed through, roasting and slicing them, fire rod in one hand and sword in the other. Sometimes, Wind would spin in a circle, wielding both hammers at once in a flurry of destruction, sending enemies soaring. Wild tore through the ranks, Great Thunderblade in hand, scanning for any sign of The Shadow. If he could only get some altitude, he should be able to spot it. Weaving his way through, he suddenly found himself face-to-stomach with a sleeping hinox. Perfect. Rushing up to the hinox, he clambered up onto its head, waking it in the process. It stood up, confused and irritated and Wild took that opportunity to leap off of its head and into the air, drawing his bow and scanning the battlefield. _Shadow, shadow, shadow, where could it be?_

Sky ducked and wove through the fray, scanning for any sign of a lizalfos blacker than ink, the Master Sword slicing cleanly through its foes with a bloody vengeance. Hyrule and Legend wove through the chaos, Hyrule slashing at the occasional enemy and Legend blasting them with his magic rod. They didn’t want to drain their magic reserves until they found The Shadow.

Amidst the explosions, blasts of fire, hurricanes, and large melee weapons, Wild could make out a place where the army suddenly seemed organized and flowed with purpose, a great arrow of movement, being pulled forward by a pitch black figure sliding through the army. That was their target, then.

Wild whipped out his paraglider, yelling into the Sheikah Slate strapped to his hip that the target had been acquired, and sailed down, dropping right in front of the figure. The lizalfos froze, startled, as Wild smiled a cheeky, sh*t-eating grin. "Hi!" He called, backflipping and driving his feet into the face of a moblin that had been standing behind him. He flipped into the air and shot a bomb arrow straight up into the sky. As he fell, he whipped out a flute he'd borrowed from Legend, and blew into it and hard as he could, an ear-splitting shriek slicing across the battlefield. He then dropped back down where he had been standing, and drew his Thunderblade.

* * *

Wind heard a _target acquired!_ shout from his pendant and he and Warriors watched as an explosion burst in the air like a firework. They glanced to each other, nodded, and rushed through the battle, fanning out to alert as many other Links as possible. Wind ducked and weaved through the enemies, not bothering to actually fight any and too speedy to hit. He zipped past Hyrule and Legend, whistling the signal to follow him and they did, breaking into a sprint after him.

Warriors ran towards what looked to be a fireworks show of black blood. Careful to stay outside the range of Twilight's ball and chain, he whistled. Just like that, the fountain stopped and a green and black blur with a glint of gold could be seen rushing through the fray.

It was hard to miss Four, seeing as how there was a miniature hurricane swirling around him, filled with so much sand and so many shards of ice that Warriors couldn't make out what was going on inside. He rushed past, whistling as loudly as he could, and the wind began to die down.

Wind scanned the battlefield until he saw a telltale flash of blue light and rushed towards it, whistling. A flash of white, green, and began weaving through the monsters as well, heading towards the plume of black smoke still lingering in the sky.

* * *

At the shriek of flute, Time stepped out from behind the tree he had been standing behind and made a careful note of where the plume of black was. It was towards the front of the field, on the right side, The Shadow had likely been trying to cut a diagonal across the battlefield to rally its troops against this new threat.

He adjusted his grip on the mask and raised it up to his face. It called him, beckoned him, softy sung to him to put it on.

This was for Hyrule and Warriors and Sky and Wild and Twilight and Wind and Four and Legend. This was for his family. This was for those who The Shadow had ripped from him too many times. He wouldn't forget who he was fighting for. Not now, not ever. He held the mask in front of his face, pausing for a second as if to say _I'm doing this of my own free will. I'm in control._ It waited patiently in his right hand, a silent sentiment of _sure you are_ lingering in the air. The mask slid onto his face smoothly, perfectly, as if it were a part of his own skin. 

A soul-wrenching scream of pure agony tore through the forest as Time's body rewrote itself. His Biggoron Sword melted into brilliant light and on his back hung the double helix blade. 

The Fierce Deity stepped onto the battlefield and drew its weapon. 

A shockwave of pure blue energy sliced through the troops in front of it, painting a walkway of black blood stretching a hundred yards. Angled left to avoid the area where The Shadow was, the Fierce Deity strode through the battlefield.

Its sword was a blur. Arrows flew at it from every direction, splintering into toothpicks. It stood a few heads above most of the monsters and made a broad, effortless stroke with its arm, a glimmering barrier of death sweeping in front of it, spiraling forward and leaving no monster standing. The immediate vicinity cleared, an eerie blue glow flickered around its feet and it shot forward, a streak of blue light tearing through the field.

Wild watched as The Shadow attempted to duck back into the fray and hide behind its soldiers. _Not on my watch,_ growled Wild to himself, thrusting his sword forward. A dagger of lightning shot out, paralyzing The Shadow where it stood. Wild rushed at it again, but the paralysis didn't last nearly long enough. It managed to draw its blade, a cruel, curved, bloodthirsty blade, and block Wild's strike. Ripples of electricity rushed through The Shadow's sword, but the shadow didn't flinch. Instead, it twisted, its blade catching on the jags in Wild's own and wrenching it from his hands, tossing it over the heads of the enemies. It went for another stab, but Wild managed to pull a Windcleaver from his slate, blocking the strike and blasting The Shadow with a wall of wind. Somewhere in the distance, a moblin thrashed, a Great Thunderblade buried in its side.

The Shadow let the blast of wind push it back and attempted to dive back into the swarm of enemies. It was stopped, however, by a clawshot shooting past Wild and burying itself in The Shadow's arm, holding it back. Two more fired past him, sinking their claws into The Shadow's legs. It stood, frozen, looking over its shoulder at Warriors and Twilight, the latter wielding a clawshot in each hand. The Shadow snarled, and the claws’ holds suddenly gave, pulling freely through The Shadow's skin and falling slack on the floor. The Shadow stumbled on its knees, now down three limbs, but three bokoblins that had been standing near it suddenly dropped dead, eyes wide and suffocating. Their bodies melted into black sludge, sliding across the ground and up The Shadow's body, extending over its wounds and caking them in a layer of inky flesh. It spun back around to face the heroes with a snarl.

* * *

The Fierce Deity tore through the battlefield, enemies falling before it as if nothing more than mere paper. Rivers of black blood sunk into the soil, turning the ground to mud. The only sign of the Fierce Deity beyond its wake of annihilation was a cerulean light, slicing across the battlefield and felling everything in its path.

The Shadow, now rejuvenated but without an escape, flung itself at Wild, seeking to tear its sword through his flesh. Wild backflipped away before diving in and unleashing a flurry of blows on the dark form. His sword, however, seemed to pass straight through The Shadow as if it were made of mere mist.

In Wild's moment of confusion, The Shadow thrust its sword forward, nicking Wild in the side. He staggered backwards, checking his wound. He wouldn't put it past The Shadow to have a cursed or poised blade. Before The Shadow could rush back in to finish him off, Twilight slid in front of him, deflecting the Shadow's strike with his sword. Warriors dove in as well, trying to push it back with a powerful swipe of his sword, but the shadow simply held up its arms, letting the blade pass harmlessly through its midsection. It went to take advantage of Warriors being off balance, but Twilight knocked its blade away with his own. They'd have to keep The Shadow focused on them until Sky arrived. They couldn't let it get away, but they had to stay alive as well.

Wild tried to get a better look at the small gash in his side, but there was too much blood in the way and Warriors and Twilight needed him. He'd check it out later.

The Shadow tried to take a swipe at Twilight, but the Ordonian managed to parry its blade, the two locked in the struggle. Warriors watched, knowing it would be fruitless to stab The Shadow but wanting to help Twilight somehow. It was a contest of strength between the two and Warriors didn't want to wait to see who won. He looked over where Wild was drawing his bow. He loosed an arrow that buried itself in The Shadow's shoulder. In the second that The Shadow buckled from the shock, Twilight was able to push it back, causing it to stumble back towards the other monsters. Warriors lurched into action, cutting down the bokoblins near it so it couldn't absorb their life force or darkness or whatever it was that it did. Wild smirked. Just as he thought. For The Shadow, turning its body to mist was a conscious effort. If they could catch it off guard like they had done with their clawshots and arrow, they could still hurt it.

As Warriors cut down the surrounding bokoblins, The Shadow unleashed a hissing shriek as if to say _what are you waiting for? Kill them!_ and all of the monsters around them suddenly rushed in, their strength and effort redoubled. Warriors, Wild and Twilight moved closer together, ready to take on the coming swarm, when a wall of fire spiraled around them, pushing all of the enemies back a few feet. The trio turned towards the source of the blaze and saw Hyrule, Wind, and Legend, the latter's cloak billowing behind him and a vicious snarl peeking out from behind the ice rod clenched in his teeth. In one hand he held his magic rod and in the other, his fire rod. The blaze cast black shadows over their faces and made their eyes glow an eerie red. They were demons, unleashing their vengeance onto their killers.

"Its body turns to mist when it sees an attack coming! You can only catch him by surprise!" Wild called to them.

"And keep it away from other enemies! It drains their lives to heal!" Warriors added.

The three nodded, and darted into the battle, Hyrule rushing to Wild to heal the source of the blood he spotted pouring down his side.

He lifted up Wild's tunic and winced. A spiderweb of black crept out from the tear in his skin. "Wild, what did you get hit by?"

"The Shadow's sword," Wild bit out. "Is it poisoned?"

"I can't say," mused Hyrule.

Warriors and Twilight were trying to distract The Shadow and Legend and Wind focused on keeping the other enemies at bay. The Shadow, though, seemed to notice Hyrule treating Wild. It had a sharp analytical edge in its beady red eyes that worried Hyrule. It was watching and analyzing their every move.

Hyrule tried to push some healing magic into Wild's side, but it flowed around his skin like a stream parting around a rock.

"It's repelling my magic. I can only hope that that's all it does. If something feels off, you will tell me _immediately_." Wild nodded.

"You can keep fighting but don't get hit again."

Wild didn't need to be told twice.

Twilight and Warriors alternated blocking The Shadow's blows, unable to strike back without leaving themselves open. Even if they managed to get a slice in, The Shadow turned to mist before they actually managed to hit it. It was locked in another parry, this time with Warriors, when three arrows dug themselves into The Shadow's back. Wild knocked another three, avoiding his more powerful magic arrows so he wouldn't hurt his allies. He angled himself so if The Shadow managed to turn to mist, there would be no risk of hitting his allies.

He let his arrows fly and they drove again into The Shadow, this time in its side, and it looked around frantically for more mindless monsters to harvest. Seeing none in sight and still locked in battle with Twilight and Warriors, it began to draw an inky black liquid from the ground. The liquid crept up its body, pushing the arrows from its flesh and healing it. Wild looked to the ground. Small rivers of ink were tracing winding paths across the ground from the monsters that everyone had slain. It wasn't their lives it was stealing, it was their blood. And there was a lot of it.

"It's not their life it absorbs!" Wild called, "it's their blood! When you kill enemies, you're only giving it more blood to use!"

"That can't be right," Twilight called back, "why did it kill those three bokoblins earlier if it could have used blood on the ground?"

"Maybe it works best when it's fresh!" Legend shouted, crushing a group of bokoblins under a block of ice. 

"Then try to burn them!" Wind called, smashing a bulbin with his hammer, "they'll be less bloody that way!

Legend nodded, switching back to his fire rod.

Wild felt a strange tingling creeping up his side. Pulling back his sleeve, he saw black lines like the cracks in a mirror stretching across his left arm. This was bad. He didn't know what effect it might have on him, but he didn't want to find out. He was worried enough about what it would do to his scar tissue.

"Hyrule! It's spreading!"

Hyrule rushed over, looking at his arm. He sucked in a breath from between clenched teeth, worried.

"I have no idea what to do. My magic doesn't work on it. I'm—I'm so sorry, Wild."

"Don't apologize," he forced a smile, "it's not like I'm dead!"

Hyrule found that strangely unsettling, but made no comment.

Twilight and Warriors continued dueling The Shadow, but it was rough on them. The Shadow was fast and they couldn't hurt it at all. The most they could do was buy time until Sky hopefully showed up, Master Sword in hand. Wind smashed a few more bokoblins with his sword before glancing around worriedly. Where had Legend gone?

He was answered by the sight of a blade protruding through The Shadow's middle. Legend flashing into existence behind him, a smug grin on his face.

He jerked his chin up in a signal to _get back_ , and Warriors and Twilight jumped away in time to avoid the massive blast of fire that consumed Legend and his prey. The red-clad hero popped back into existence next to Hyrule, smiling at his handiwork.

"What was that?!" asked Wind, staring wide-eyed at him.

"My magic cloak! It makes me invincible and invisible, but it drains my magic a ton so I try not to use it too often." A mischievous glint lit up his eye. "I have plenty of fun tricks up _my_ sleeves." He winked and dove back into the battle, keeping the horde from encroaching any farther in on them. 

Twilight and Warriors looked back to The Shadow, the fire now gone, but a plume of smoke hovering behind it. It was kneeling on one knee, panting heavily. Twilight cautiously stepped forward, ready to strike it if it moved, but was interrupted by The Shadow viciously lurching forward, sword outstretched and headed straight for Twilight. It was fast, though, and he barely managed to deflect its blade out of the way. Now that he was off balance, The Shadow pressed its advantage, readying a strike. At that moment, a grappling hook shot out, wrapping around The Shadow's neck and causing it to stagger backwards and away from Twilight.

As the smoke cleared from behind where The Shadow had been standing, Twilight could make out a pile of sludge next to a stack of monster bodies, pale from lack of blood. It hadn't been damaged by the fire at all, instead using it as cover to regain its heath. Sneaky bastard. 

The Shadow, after its initial moment of shock, let Wind's grappling hook pass through its neck and rounded on Warriors, ready to fight. It tried to lunge at the Captain again, but he was ready, deflecting its strikes with well-timed flicks of his blade.

Wild was now bent on one knee, breathing heavily. It felt like something was crawling around inside of him, like a thousand insects writhing in his veins. 

"Hyrule? I don't feel so good." His head swum and he couldn't quite blink it away.

Hyrule rushed over, looking Wild up and down. There was nothing he could do. It still rejected his magic, and the black marks had spread to Wild's neck. Hyrule scanned the field to see if anyone else had gotten hit as well. As he watched, Warriors parried a strike from The Shadow, but it pointed its blade down, pivoting on Warriors' own and making a small gash on the Captain's cheek. Faint black marks rippled onto his otherwise flawless skin.

"Warriors! You've been hit! Come over here and let me check you out!" Hyrule called.

Wind stopped pushing enemies back for a moment to swipe at the back of The Shadow's thighs, crippling it for the second it took Warriors to get away. 

"Wild got hit, and he's got these black marks spreading all over his body. I don't know what they do, but he's in no condition to fight and soon you won't be either. You can fight, but you don’t have a lot of time left in the field. Rush back the second you feel light-headed." 

Warriors nodded, his brow furrowing as he sped back into battle, taking out the enemies Wind had left when he shifted his focus to fighting The Shadow.

Twilight occupied most of The Shadow's attention as Wind jumped to the side and rolled around it, slicing up its back. Caught off guard, it stumbled backwards. It let out a shrill whistle like the screech of a redead and all the Links froze for a moment. In the distance, over the ringing of his ears, Wild could make out a roar.

Warriors, from where he was pushing back waves of enemies to make an arena for his allies and The Shadow, suddenly collapsed to the ground, clutching his head in pain. A moblin made to take a swing at him, but a blast of red magic pushed it back. Hyrule rushed over, red light dancing over his hands, and heaved Warriors' arm over his shoulder, guiding the Captain back towards Wild.

Now with Twilight and Wind dueling The Shadow, only Legend was left to stop the enemies from encroaching from all sides, thirsty for the blood of the heroes. He dashed around the edge of their circle, blasting enemies away from The Shadow with his fire rod and constructing a haphazard barrier of ice around Hyrule, Wild, and Warriors using the ice rod clenched in his teeth. Bursts of iridescent magic shot out from the rod in his other hand, staggering enemies back and dazing them. 

They were closing around from every side, though, and Legend was desperate. Twilight and Wind were tiring from the intense battle with The Shadow and he couldn't let it regain any more health.

"Everyone get behind me!" he shouted, spitting the ice rod into his hand holding the fire rod, rushing up to The Shadow, and dropping the two staves on the ground. Wind made a quick stab at The Shadow before backflipping out of the way, Twilight skipping backwards to avoid whatever Legend was plotting. Grabbing one of the medallions around his neck with his now free hand, he concentrated before bracing himself, a cacophony of explosions erupting around him. The Shadow staggered backwards and a circle of enemies centered around where he was standing got blown to bits, a fountain of black blood raining down around them.

"Not a fan of magic, eh?" asked Legend, circling The Shadow. Twilight and Wind took advantage of the momentary respite before continuing to push enemies back. Hyrule stood in the center of the semicircle of ice blocks, watching dark needles crawl across Wild and Warriors' skin but unable to do anything. Wild was gritting his teeth in pain and sweating profusely. Warriors' marks were advancing towards his left eye and he squirmed jerkily from the pain of it.

Legend swiped his ice and fire rods from the ground and charged at The Shadow, stunning it with a blast of light from his magic rod. Summoning a block of ice behind it to trap it, he had The Shadow cornered.

Or he thought he did.

Vicious and cornered, The Shadow dove at him, entirely ignoring the blast of fire he sent at it. Legend dodged to the side just as The Shadow's blade passed him by, slicing a few pink hairs and skimming the tip of his ear.

A tiny droplet of blood collected on its tip and rolled down its side.

"Legend! Did it get you?"

"Just a nick, 'Rule, it's fine!"

"It's not fine! The blade's poisoned! Do as much damage as you can and get yourself over here!"

Legend nodded. If there was a time to use up all of the magic and spite he had bottled up inside of him, this was that time.

"You reduced Time to a nervous wreck. You killed me and _my family_ over and _over_ and forced Time to suffer through it all. You killed _Hyrule_ in an alternate universe. I'm gonna make you rue the day you crawled out of whatever miserable pile of sludge you call home and make you beg for mercy."

Glancing over his shoulder to see Twilight and Wind still safely hanging back and defending Hyrule's makeshift infirmary, he activated his Ether Medallion, lighting coursing through his body. He turned invisible, charging at The Shadow with superhuman speed thanks to his boots and rings, and tackled it, electricity pouring from Legend's body and into The Shadow's. One hand around The Shadow's throat and another on his neck, rods laying abandoned on either side of him, he activated his Quake medallion. The earth shook and cracks appeared, all centered around The Shadow's throat. Jagged spikes of earth stabbed up around Legend's hand piercing through The Shadow. It chose that moment to turn to mist, skating backwards across the ground. Looking up from where he knelt on the ground, Legend could see the Shadow standing over him, beady red eyes watching him with a sort of sick glee. Legend flinched at a strange pulling sensation on his ear. He attempted to swat away whatever was tugging at it, but nothing was there. Looking back up to The Shadow standing over him, confusion clear on his face, Legend could make out the silhouette of a lynel behind it, furious eyes drilling into him. Legend grabbed the rods on either side and made to stand up to tackle the beast, but The Shadow simply held up a hand and the lynel seemed to melt, writhing in pain and turning to black ink that flowed across the ground and into The Shadow, negating everything Legend had just done to it.

Hyrule rushed over, repelling The Shadow with a quick blast of magic before half-dragging Legend next to Wild and Warriors. He looked up at them, at the black marks creeping across their bodies, Wild panting and writhing in pain and Warriors about ready to claw his eyes out, and sighed, resigning himself to his fate. His magic was almost entirely spent and now he was forced to sit in the time-out corner of pain. Pathetic. He peeked over a wall of ice and saw Hyrule, walking purposefully towards The Shadow. Wind and Twilight looked like they were beginning to tire, doing everything they could to keep the monsters from reaching the injured. Hyrule stood in front of The Shadow and growled, "f*ck you."

Lightning blasted from his fingertips, arcing into The Shadow and keeping it paralyzed in place, vibrating with energy. He wasn't as impulsive or dramatic as Legend. All that healing had taught him precise magic control. If he kept a steady stream of electricity going, he could keep The Shadow immobile without taking a hit. It would also greatly reduce his healing capabilities later on, though they hadn’t been of much use so far. He could only keep this up for so long. Where in the world was Sky?

* * *

Sky, upon hearing a shrill whistle cut through his battle-focused mind, began dashing towards the plume of black smoke. He was interrupted by a large form rising in front of him, standing up to its full, rather impressive height. It was a hideous ogre, like a giant one-eyed moblin, and it was blocking Sky's way.

"I don't suppose I can just walk around you, can I?"

The hinox slammed a foot down, shaking the earth and effectively barring his way forward. 

"I didn't think so," he muttered before charging forward, Master Sword at the ready, and rolling out of the way just as it slammed one of its fists down. Using a carefully aimed strike, Sky managed to slice the tendon controlling its left arm, crippling it. Now that he was behind it, he made to run towards the smoke but froze. Did he really want to lure this hinox into a battle with The Shadow? That was the last thing they needed. But also, The Shadow had an aversion to the Master Sword. They knew this. He _needed_ to get over there.

The hinox made the decision for him. A moblin crashed to the ground in front of Sky, blocking his escape. Spinning around, Sky saw the Hinox, holding another moblin in his good hand. It chucked the moblin at Sky with an arm like the Groosenator, and he was forced to roll out of the way. The hinox advanced on him, now pressing him to the side and away from The Shadow, its huge feet shaking the earth beneath Sky's feet.

* * *

Green, Red, Blue, and Vio let the storm die down a few moments after they heard the whistle.

"Do we merge or reveal ourselves?"

"Wouldn’t it be distracting to have the four of us rushing around the place?"

"It would be helpful! Remember the plan? We need all the manpower we can get."

"Alright. Let's head that way."

They were interrupted by a flash of blue light aimed at a staggering hinox. 

"I think that's Sky."

"Oh! We need to go help him! He needs to fight The Shadow!"

"Yeah. Let's get over there."

The four wove through the battle, blasting enemies out of the way with elemental magic.

Eventually, they neared the hinox, Sky dodging around it and tossing sword beams up at its eye. In his peripheral vision, he saw the four Fours and froze, blinking for a second. In his moment of confusion, the hinox managed to throw one of Sky’s moblin at him, crushing him under its weight and pinning him down.

The four froze in horror, save for Blue who was already rushing ahead

"You said it wouldn't be a problem! You said it would be helpful!"

"I said wrong!"

"I told you we should have told them before the battle!"

"And I told you we should have merged!"

"Guys, stop! Sky needs our help and he's not gonna get it from us bickering!Let's start by taking out that hinox!"

The three rushed forwards, each twirling their respective rods through their hands. Vio raised a column of earth beneath one of the hinox's feet, leaving it off balance. Green blasted it with a gust of wind and it staggered to the side, blue summoning an array of dagger-sharp ice spears next to it for it to fall on. With one final blast of fire, the hinox fell onto the spikes, sliding neatly onto them, hot black blood slipping down the ice, melting it and causing rivers of marbled ink to flow across the ground. With another blast of fire from red and a sandstone arch from Vio trapping its wrists, they left the hinox to bleed out and rushed to where Sky was pinned under the moblin, gasping for breath.

Sky had no strength-boosting equipment, so try as he might, he could not move the moblin. Even if he were strong enough, his arms were pinned at an awkward angle and he had no real leverage with which to get the moblin off of him. Coupled with his preexisting breathing issues and the moblin sitting on his chest, he could see his vision starting to go black.

Green rushed up to him and tried to shove the moblin off of him, but it wouldn't budge. Red, Blue, and Vio held off the encroaching hoard of mindless monsters as Green tried to push again, but to no avail. Sky's head began to slacken and he stopped gasping for breath, now short, shallow hiccups all he could manage.

"Alright let’s switch; you guys take the moblin, I'll take care of everything else," Green ordered, stepping forward. The others rushed to Sky, struggling to roll the moblin off of him. 

"Heave! Heave! Heave!" they chanted in unison, trying to dislodge it.

Green whipped up a gale around them, pushing the monsters back.

"Vio, can't you push it off with a block of earth?"

"I can't do that without releasing the hinox!"

"Well, do it! Sky's dying for Hylia's sake!"

Vio sighed and tightened his grip on the sand rod, causing blocks of earth to rise on either side of the moblin, raising it up over Sky's body.

Through the whirling windstorm, Vio could make out the shape of an enraged hinox, coated with blood, staggering to its feet, and with nothing to lose. This was not good. Red placed his head against Sky's face and pressed his fingers to his neck.

"He's got a pulse but he isn't breathing!"

"Give him breaths, Red!" called Blue, adding daggers of ice to Green's storm, hoping to build up enough to keep the hinox at bay.

Red tilted Sky's head back to open his airway and pinched his nose. He sucked in a breath, placed his lips on Sky's, and exhaled, but the Chosen Hero’s lungs didn't fill up with air.

The hinox charged towards the storm, but was beaten back by a shower of icy daggers.

Red readjusted Sky's head and tried again, letting a breath into his lungs. This time, Sky's chest rose and fell steadily as Red blew another breath into him.

The hinox charged again, this time managing to break one blackened hand through the storm. 

Vio dragged Sky out from under the moblin and deformed his stone blocks, allowing him to send a spear of earth impaling through the hinox's stomach, an explosion of black erupting from where it exited.

Red listened. Still nothing. He blew two more breaths into Sky.

The hinox roared, a frightful sound over the whipping of the wind.

Red breathed again, watching the steady rise and fall of Sky's chest.

Nothing.

He went to try again, but Green placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. 

"When I lower that wind wall, blast that hinox with all the fire you can muster."

Red nodded, standing and grabbing his rod.

Green dropped the storm, Blue launching the ice crystals into the hinox's eye. Red blasted it with every ounce of fire he could muster, which was a lot of fire.

Green crouched over Sky, using his affinity for wind and the tornado rod in his hand, he managed to get an impromptu ventilator going, air filling Sky’s lungs in regular intervals. 

The hinox roared in pain as it was swallowed by flame. Vio deconstructed the spear of earth in favor of creating a great big hole in the ground behind the hinox and it staggered backwards, falling inside.

After a few moments, Sky gasped a sharp inhale of breath, his eyes shooting open and his exhale shuddering.

"You're alive!"

"...Four? Why are there _*hic*_ four of you?"

"It's a bit of a long story. More importantly, are you okay? You weren't breathing!"

Sky took a few more deep breaths, watching the four Fours watch the hinox fall.

"I'm alright. Just give me a minute."

Green nodded furiously. "Of course, of course, anything you need. I'm so sorry for distracting you, I—"

"Don't," started Sky, "it's not your fault and there's no time to get worked up over it. We need to get to The Shadow."

After a few more deep breaths from Sky and a lot of earth, wind, fire and ice repelling the nearby monsters, he managed to pull himself to his feet. 

"Let's go."

* * *

Warriors' left eye had become a single black orb in its socket and nearly his entire face was covered in spiderwebbing markings. Only the blood dribbling from where he was biting his lip was enough to stop him from screaming. 

Legend closed his eyes, focusing on something and mumbling to himself as he wrung his hands, trying to control his breathing. His ear was completely covered by blackness and it was beginning to creep across his face, towards his eye. He tried to prepare himself for the pain he knew was coming. _Not magic powder, that wouldn't help. Any of my rings? No, those haven't been working on this either. Medallions. Any medallions? No, those only deal damage. How about..._ he continued thinking through all of his items, trying to come up with something that might help.

He was interrupted by Wild’s sudden jolt, the champion writhing on the ground. Wild's entire torso and neck were covered by the darkness that was now beginning to creep up his face. Blood trickled from where he dug his nails into the palms of his hands and he was struggling to control his breathing. The darkness wrapped its dagger-like fingers around his neck and he felt it squeeze, digging like knives into his throat. He wheezed, unable to take in enough air to stay conscious. The world began to swim around him, spinning with green spots. Legend rushed to his side, bent over him and cradling the hero’s head in his lap.

“Hey! Hey, Wild! Wild! Stay with me! _F*ck!_ ” What could he do? The darkness was suffocating Wild and not a single item in his endless inventory spanning two dimensions, three eras, four lands, and six adventures could help him. He was supposed to be powerful and experienced! Competent! He wasn’t supposed to be so _helpless_ ! He could control the _seasons themselves_ with the flick of a rod! Yet here Wild was, dying in his lap.

“Wild! Please, you have to hold on! I don’t know how to make you stay, or if I even can, but I love you. You’re like a brother to me. You’re my family. I’d die for you. Please. _Please._ Stay alive. _Please!_ ” 

With a final agonized breath, Wild froze, face frozen in an expression of horror, black tendrils ringing his face. Legend ripped the Wild’s tunic open down the center, ignoring the stabbing pain crawling across the side of his own head. There on the champion’s chest, outlined in back ink, was Wild’s heart, dark webs of black tracing it to the wound in his side.

“ _DAMN IT ALL!_ ” Legend shrieked, pressing his forehead to Wild’s too-still chest. 

He shoved his hand into the pouch at his hip, pulling out the Ocarina. They’d come so far. They’d found The Shadow and kept the Fierce Deity away from it. Sky was on his way with the Master Sword. They were so close. But no, victory would be meaningless if Wild were dead. He refused to live in a world without Wild, even if it were a world rid of darkness. He raised the ocarina to his lips.

* * *

Twilight and Wind were panting, sweat pouring down their faces as they continued trying to drive back enemies. Twilight had pulled his ball and chain out. The injured were laying close to the ground and Wind was short, so he managed to swing it over all their heads without any trouble. 

Hyrule stood face-to-face with The Shadow, breathing controlled breaths. Too controlled. His eyes were closed and his hands outstretched. His stance was even and a steady stream of flickering electricity poured from his fingers, through The Shadow, and into the ground, keeping it paralyzed. Sweat drenched his clothes and hair and red marks began to appear on the tips of his fingers where the skin was going raw.

The traveler hero dropped to one knee with exhaustion as The Shadow began to stir, fighting the current. He couldn't hold on much longer. He needed to take a break to catch his breath or he'd pass out. Maybe just for five seconds. Yeah, only five seconds.

* * *

Wild floated in a warm, familiar blackness. Normally, this was when the aquamarine echo of Mipha would appear, engulfed in blue flame and imparting her blessing onto him, fulfilling her dying promise. But not this time. This time, he was dead. Mipha was at peace, resting for the first time since her one hundred years of torment inside Vah Ruta. But _dammit,_ he needed to stay. Who knows what would happen in this battle. He couldn’t send Time back to relive this hell, not again. He wouldn’t dare wish such a fate upon Legend either. He’d been infected, just like Wild, and even if he rewound, he’d still end up dying slowly and painfully like Wild had. No. Wild needed to stay. He had to. There was no choice. He needed to stay, to hold onto anything he could, to reach out for any little scrap of power he could muster. Searching within him, scouring every fiber of his being, he found a nigh-invisible teal thread. It hung from his heart, a heart currently convulsing with inky blackness, and trailed off into the darkness. He placed his hand on the thread and tugged lightly.

The thread thickened and began to glow, droplets of blazing blue ichor sliding down the thread and pouring into his heart. At the other end of the thread, if he squinted, he could see the faint outline of a zora, hands outstretched warmly and head cocked kindly.

“M-mipha? You’re supposed to be at peace! You’re free now! You don’t need to hold onto me anymore, you shouldn’t, you can’t—”

“I can’t truly rest until I know you’re safe. I made you a promise, after all.”

“But your spirit departed, you—”

“My spirit may have, but yours did not. And we are joined by a bond far stronger than death. You will survive this battle, even if it’s simply because you’re too stubborn to die.” She smiled fondly before her expression dropped into one of focus. “This malaise is beyond my power. I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

Wild fell to his knees in gratitude and relief. “Thank you, Mipha, more than words can express.”

“Think nothing of it,” she offered warmly, her smile returning. “It was my pleasure.” 

* * *

A blinding flash caused Wild to screw up his eyes in pain. He sucked in a deep, ragged breath, his heart jolting into action, pumping in overdrive. Speaking of pain, the fading of the warm, numbing blackness meant he was thrust back into writhing in unimaginable agony. Success. 

Legend’s tear-stained face watched in shock and relief, the ocarina in his mouth and one strangled note sliding out unbidden.

The instrument slipped from his limp, trembling hands and he dove onto the other hero, burying in face in his hair.

“ _Wild! You’re alive!_ ”

“Really?” gasped Wild weakly, a faint grin sliding across his face. “Hadn’t noticed.”

Legend smacked him upside the head. Well, it was really more like a pat. And it was on his cheek. It was a loving gesture, whatever it was.

* * *

The second Hyrule dropped his stream of magic, The Shadow was a blur of motion. It rushed at the traveller hero, a cruel, curved blade in its hand. As it neared the exhausted figure, a battle cry sounded from above. Sky leapt into the air from what seemed to be a pillar of earth that shot up like a springboard. He soared over the makeshift infirmary and planted himself between Hyrule and The Shadow, an ethereal blue light flickering over the Master Sword. He lunged at The Shadow, his system still screaming from the adrenaline, and drove his sword into its midsection. It had gotten so used to leaving its guard down and letting swords pass right through it that it left an opening. While getting launched towards The Shadow, Sky had seen the cluster of Links hiding behind a wall of ice, Legend weeping over Wild’s form as Warriors writhed in pain. Sky let the Master Sword sink into The Shadow, slowly, twisting, and it let out a horrific screech. It dove backwards, attempting to flee into the mass of monsters, but a gust of wind shoved it forward. Green appeared, smacking the tornado rod into the palm of his hand menacingly, flanked by Vio, Red, and Blue.

* * *

The Fierce Deity skated across the earth like it was nothing, pure energy propelling it forward. Its sword was a blur, streaks of blue arcing out in every direction, leaving ponds and rivers of inky black fluid. Lynels and hinoxes, aeralfos and dodongos, darknuts and guardians, all fell indiscriminately to its blade. A tide of black swept across the ground, now up to the Fierce Deity's ankles. It was coated in the stuff, pitch black save for empty white eyes and blazing red and blue markings. It swept across the plain, annihilating everything that moved. It reached the portals, great spirals of swirling blackness lingering in the air, a tide of monsters rushing through their mouths, filling an area the size of a small village. Standing by each portal was a wizzrobe. There was no way such a minor creature could construct those portals. Most likely, The Shadow had created them and these creatures were merely maintaining them. 

Pathetic.

The Fierce Deity held its blade out to the side before swiping it across in front of it with a flick of its wrist. An arc of ether swept in front of the deity, a writhing beam of energy that tore through the air, evaporating the pouring torrents of bokoblins, darknuts, guardians, moblins, hinoxes, lynels, and aeralfos into burning slivers of flesh, an eruption of inky black blood shattering into the evening sky. The remaining carcassses melted into blood that rushed by the Fierce Deity’s legs, momentarily surging up to its knees, before lowering again. The portals shriveled shut, the entire landscape reduced to sludge.

The Fierce Deity was the tallest figure on the field, everything else cut down to the ground. There was only a little more left. It charged again, the blue flickering around its ankles reflected in the sea of pitch beneath it. It skated towards the area where the last vestiges of enemies were. There seemed to be a great deal of commotion over there. The Fierce Deity could tell its host didn't want it over there, but it didn't matter. The Fierce Deity had put that particular hero into a lovely sleep. He shouldn't interfere for a while.

* * *

The Shadow staggered backwards, the Master Sword protruding from its stomach. It was cornered by swirling rushes of wind, ice, fire, and sand. Sky strode forward, a furious look in his eyes. 

"You. You pitiful... _worm_." He ripped his sword from the Shadow's stomach and watched in sick satisfaction as a blossom of black erupted from its chest. Actually, black was everywhere. Where there had once been muddied grass, there was now a sea of black blood up to his ankles. It was flowing with rather impressive speed, too. The Shadow smirked, a dangerous gleam in its eyes as it attempted to draw the now plentiful black up into its being. 

It actually thought that that would help. The Shadow actually thought that a little bit of black sludge would change _anything._ Hilarious.

Sky flashed forward before The Shadow could incorporate the blood into its being, plunging his sword straight into its neck. Another ear-splitting shriek of agony ripped from its broken throat and Sky smiled.

"You think you're _so_ great, huh. You think you're so _powerful_ with your _armies_ and your _monsters_ ." He tore his blade from The Shadow's throat and plunged it back into its gut. "You're _pathetic_ ! You can't do a _single_ thing against me! You know why?" He twisted the Master Sword, slowly pulling it from The Shadow's abdomen, dark, vicious flesh slowly getting blended into a pudding. "You _dare_ hurt the people _I_ care about." Sky ripped the sword out of The Shadow's stomach and drove his heel into the wound, shoving The Shadow backwards and into the ground. It splashed into a puddle of black, and droplets spattered up into Sky's face, running down his cheeks like tears of black blood. "And now," he drove his heel further into The Shadow's wound, twisting his foot.

"I get to make you _suffer_."

"Sky!" Twilight called, rushing over and trying to pull him back. "Sky, stop!"

"whY?" Sky asked, spinning to face Twilight, breathing heavily, a manic smile on his face. "I'm mAking it pAY. Do you knOW _hOW_ mANY _tiMES_ it KILLED uS? hOW maNY _tiMES_ iT maDe uS _BLEED_ OUT at iTs _FEET_ ?" He turned back to The Shadow. "It's goinG to _SUFFER_ eVERy _deaTH_ we _sUffEreD_ and So Much _MORE_."

Twilight wrapped his arms around Sky's stomach, pulling him close and trying to break him out of his manic rage. 

"Sky, please!" as he pulled, he felt his hand touch a wound. When he pulled it back, black blood stained his hand. When had Sky gotten nicked? This hadn’t happened to Wild or Warriors. What was happening to Sky?

"Sky, this isn't you! You got caught by its blade! It's trying to take you over! Hang on! Don't let it pull you in!" Twilight continued trying to pull Sky back, but Sky rounded on him, shoving him back. Twilight staggered, caught off guard, and fell backwards onto the ground. Sky stood, pointing the Master Sword at Twilight’s throat, standing over him, a gleeful fury in his eyes.

The Master Sword flashed purple in his hand and wisps of light flickered from the handle, seeping into his fingers and burning his palm. He jerked his hand back in shock, dropping the sword. The Master Sword fell towards where Twilight laid on the ground below Sky, and he jerked his head to the side just as the Blade of Evil’s Bane embedded itself in the ground in the spot where his head had been. 

Sky stared down at the burn on his hand in horror, a chill running down his spine and clearing his mind. What had he done? What had he _done_? He rounded back to look at The Shadow again. The four Fours rushed at it, rods drawn, but it ripped something off of itself—a midnight black scale—and threw it down, making a pink and black triangle open beneath its feet and it fell through, the portal vanishing behind it. The bokoblins around them, there were very few now, stopped fighting with so much uncontrolled power and began bumbling about as they usually did, swinging haphazard strikes at the Fours.

There was a flash of blue and the bokoblins all dropped to the ground, heads bobbing in the six inches of black blood that coated the battlefield. A demon stood before them, pitch black in body, yet fierce white eyes that glowed with a sort of divine, terrifying power, shone through. Fearsome markings, red and blue jagged lines and arcs, stood brightly, unsullied by the sheets of black blood rolling down its body. It stood eight feet tall and the sword it wielded was the size of a spear, a great double helix curling out from the handle. It stood above them, the now setting sun sinking behind it, painting the sky red with blood. It was only them left now: the eight Links and the Fierce Deity. Behind it, corpses and ribs could be seen silhouetted against the red horizon, corpses floating in a sea of black blood. Blue fire danced on its blade.

The last of the enemies taken care of, the four decided to merge, not wanting anyone else to get distracted by their presence as Sky had. Anything could happen. Luckily, everyone was too focused on the Fierce Deity to notice the flash of light as Four became one.

The Fierce Deity began stalking towards the infirmary, eyes unseeing beacons of energy, and with one sweep of its sword, it shattered the ice blocks to mere snowflakes that melted instantly in the heat radiating off its form. It raised its sword to strike them down, Wild, Warriors, and Legend, but Wind dove in front, his sword and shield at the ready. The Fierce Deity froze, hand hovering in midair for a moment, before continuing its strike down, slashing across Wind's chest from shoulder to hip. The young hero staggered backwards, but fell back on top of the three injured heroes. A clear sign. _You get to them, you go through me._

"O Fierce Deity!" Hyrule called, rushing towards it, hands up and head bowed in a gesture of respect. "We thank you for your aid! You saved all of our lives, all of our kingdoms, and all of our worlds. No matter what we do, we will never be able to fully express our gratitude for what you did for us on this day. Now you are free! You no longer must be bound to that body. You may release our companion and continue your divine existence." Sweat poured down his back and his hands shook, but it was worth a shot.

Legend reached one shaking hand into the sea of ink, digging around, searching for something he had dropped.

**"Y o u f o o l."**

Legend felt his fingers grasp the familiar shape of an object he had many of, but this one was new. Or perhaps it was the oldest of them all.

"Pardon?"

Legend slowly raised the Ocarina of Time from the black sea and brought it to his lips once again. His hands shook so much he could barely hold the instrument, but he managed to get it to his mouth.

He had to get back. He didn't know what they'd do, but it wouldn't be this. Not this. Never this. Wind wouldn't be bleeding out on top of him, Warriors and Wild would never have to suffer through so much pain. They'd go back. Far, to days before the battle. They'd get on the other side of the mountains. They'd funnel the enemies properly. Time would never need to call upon this cursed power.

The Fierce Deity moved like lightning, shooting past Hyrule and around Wind to where Legend held the Ocarina to his lips.

Without a word, its hand shot forward and tore the Ocarina from Legend's grasp. 

**"y o u d a r e a t t e m p t t o s e p a r a t e m e f r o m m y h o s t?"**

**"I e x i s t w i t h o u t t i m e. I a m n o t b o u n d t o t h i s p r e s e n t. D o n o t t h i n k I w i l l l e t y o u t e a r m y h o s t a w a y f r o m m e."**

And with that, the Fierce Deity held the Ocarina of Time in one fist and crushed it, blue shards of ceramic falling to the ground, swallowed up by the inky black blood.

All the Links froze in horror at the implications of what the Fierce Deity had just done. There was no going back. This was their timeline now.

**"T h i s b o d y i s m i n e. I t s o r i g i n a l o w n e r i s s l e e p i n g p l e a s a n t l y. N o w, I w i l l s e v e r t h e l a s t o f t h e t i e s h o l d i n g t h i s b o d y t o t h a t p a t h e t i c s o u l. "**

Legend's mind raced. How to get Time back, how to get Time back, how do you get someone back who's possessed, how do you wake someone who's sleeping?

_HOW DO YOU WAKE SOMEONE WHO'S SLEEPING._

Rummaging through the pouch strapped to his waist, he managed to grab another one of his ocarinas. This time, he pulled it to his face immediately and began to play the song that had haunted his sweetest dreams.

The Ballad of the Wind Fish.

The ethereal melody wavered across the silent hellscape and the Fierce Deity froze. Its sword fell from its hand, splashing into the void swimming around its ankles, its back ramrod straight. It slowly brought its trembling hands to its face and suddenly began convulsing in pain, falling backwards against the bloody sky and letting out a soul-shattering scream so loud it sounded like its vocal cords were shredding. Legend kept playing, louder and more confidently now. It twisted around in the black blood, sending waves of darkness over the other Links. Twilight carefully made his way to the thrashing figure and gingerly touched his hand to its forehead. The figure froze for a moment and Twilight took that opportunity to carefully slide his hands down its face, caressing its cheeks, until he reached the jawline. Carefully curling his fingers around a slight rise in the skin, he pulled.

The bottom of the mask, the mouth, began to rise, loose, gooey strings of skin melting off the mask, and clinging to Time’s neck. Twilight continued pulling, eventually peeling the entire mask off Time's face. Adorning his face, just above his right eye, was a new, red marking to match that of the mask. Brushing away the rest of the gooey residue, Twilight bent over, pressing a gentle kiss to Time's forehead. His mentor’s eyes flickered open for a moment, a forlorn look of confusion swimming in his irises before they fluttered closed and he took in deep, slow breaths, clearly asleep.

Twilight took a deep breath and stood, taking charge in the absence of his mentor. "Sky. Get the Master Sword to Wild, Warriors, and Legend. See if it helps purify that darkness at all. Hyrule, how much magic do you have left in you?"

"Barely any."

"Can you stabilize Wind?"

"I'll do what I can." He knelt before the hero, his tunic the only one soaked in red rather than black, and pressed his hands over the wound. Yes, maybe he could stabilize him after all. 

"Bandages. Someone tear me some bandages out of cloth that isn't covered in back blood." 

They all thought for a moment before Wild wheezed: "my... slate."

Sky quickly rushed to Wild's side, removing his slate and handing him the Master Sword instead. Sky rushed back to Wind, and managed to pull out some clean, sturdy garments to rip into bandages. They did.

Wild held the Master Sword in his hands, barely sitting up and breathing heavily. He felt the familiar welcoming warmth of the blade wash over him. He pressed his forehead against the triforce emblem on the blade and the black marking on his hand and face began to fade slightly until they were only faint marks, barely distinguishable from a slight tan line. As the color receded, so did the pain. The excruciating fire that had engulfed him was suddenly extinguished and now he could breathe. He quickly passed the sword to Warriors who clutched it for dear life and pressed the flat of the blade against his forehead. For him as well, the pain and blackness faded. He passed it to Legend who cautiously gripped it, its familiar yet otherworldly energy rippling through him, invigorating him.

The three stood carefully and made their way over to Wind. The tiny hero had bandages upon bandages spiraled around his torso like the Wind Burrito™ he loved to sleep in so much. His breaths were shallow and uneven, but they were there. And that was enough for the boys. 

"Let's get out of this hellscape," Legend decided, digging around in the black for his items. The sun dipped below the horizon, its blood red inferno now a soft golden glow. Sky, tenderly, ever so tenderly, picked up Wind, cradling the hero in his arms. Warriors and Twilight each hoisted one of Time's arms over their shoulders and dragged him off the battlefield. Once they made it to the woods where the ground sloped up enough that it was dry of blood, they set up camp, plopping to the ground exhausted.

Nobody kept watch that night, just nine heroes, bloodstained and bleeding, fading into sleep.

* * *

It was midday when Time's eye flickered open, squinting in the shafts of sunlight pouring through the trees. What had happened? He remembered putting the mask on, feeling the incomprehensible power rush over him, sweeping him away in its current despite his best efforts, until he was carried into a gentle darkness. After that, the next thing he remembered was Twilight’s smiling, teary face, stained with black blood, but unfathomably relieved.

He sat up, albeit stiffly but otherwise unharmed, and took stock of his surroundings. He was laying on a soft mount of dirt in the forest, a blanket of ferns caressing the cheeks of his fellow heroes in the slight midday breeze. On either side of him lay Warriors and Twilight, their clothes stained pitch black. Sky lay sprawled on his back, Four curled against his side and Wind snuggled up on his chest, swaddled in bandages. Hyrule was curled up against Legend who had an arm protectively tossed over Wild’s abdomen.

Time cautiously extracted himself from Warriors and Twilight’s arms. They didn’t even stir, which was unlike them. Were they…? Before he could let his imagination spiral out of control, Time bent back down, letting his ear hover above Twilight’s lips. He felt and heard the steady intake and exhale of breath. He was alright, then. Time repeated the process with Warriors and found the same result, carefully tiptoeing across the pile of heroes—calling it a camp was a little too generous—listening to each and every one of their steady intakes of breath. They were all safe. Really, _truly_ safe. Time’s knees went weak with relief. 

They survived. They’d done it. They’d need a lot of showers and nine new sets of clothes, but they’d done it. Time’s eye drifted over Legend to the hand that wasn’t tossed over Wild’s stomach. Clutched in his hand was a shard of blue ceramic, glimmering an unearthly purple. 

Icy fear clenched his heart for the briefest of moments. It was undoubtedly a _piece_ of it, but how?

What could have possibly shattered the Ocarina of Time? Nothing short of a god— oh.

_Oh._

He made his way back towards Twilight and Warriors, settling into the patch of ferns he had woken up in. He’d get the full story later. His boys were safe and that was all that mattered.

He didn’t mind the Ocarina being broken.

He wouldn’t trade this timeline for anything.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time was terrified for the others before the battle.  
> He terrified the others after the battle.
> 
> Fear Centers.... Fierce Enters?
> 
> Enough chapter title puns XD  
> Thank you all so much for sticking around for the whole story! It's been a wild ride (haha Wild) but this series is officially concluded! If you want to yell at me about this fic or give me juicy story ideas, I'm @sky-squido on tumblr and @Twi-Squido on the Discord. God bless!


End file.
